PGPA Newsletter 71

Finance has developed new guidance to help build evaluation capability, expertise and practices to support the Government’s APS Reform Agenda (see recommendation 26 of Delivering for Australians for more information).

An important part of the policy cycle is evaluating whether government programs and activities are achieving their objectives, and using evidence to assess whether the intended benefits for Australians are being realised.

The guidance has been developed collaboratively and co-designed by an Evaluation Reference Group and key stakeholders across the Commonwealth.

We would like to invite you to participate in a user testing process before we release the final guidance. We are seeking feedback from two key groups: those who are new to evaluation (the target audience for the new guidance) and those with evaluation expertise (who can validate the quality of new guidance material).

If you would like to participate in the user testing, please contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au by Friday 20 August. A link to the draft guidance and a short survey (approx. 15-30 minutes to complete) will then be provided to you for completion by Friday 27 August.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has released guidance that outlines the principles governing performance bonus use in Commonwealth entities and companies. The principles are outlined below:

• Commonwealth entities and companies exist to deliver outcomes for the public. Any performance bonuses must be carefully designed to clearly align with delivering a public benefit over and above expected outcomes.
• All Commonwealth entities and companies have a responsibility to the Australian public and therefore should act in line with community expectations regarding remuneration, regardless of their level of independence from the Government.
• Commonwealth entities and companies should exercise rigour and restraint in the use of performance bonus payments.
• Performance bonuses may only be used in limited circumstances, justifiable to the Parliament and the public.

To assist you in applying the principles please refer to the Performance Bonus Guidance available on the APSC website.

RMG-138 Commonwealth entities’ executive remuneration reporting guide for annual reports and RMG-139 Commonwealth companies’ executive remuneration reporting guide for annual reports have been updated to reflect this guidance and are available on the Finance website.

A reminder that the deadline for publishing 2021-22 corporate plans is 31 August 2021.

You are required to give the corporate plan to the responsible Minister and the Finance Minister before it is published on your entity or company website.

It is not necessary for entities to send copies of their corporate plans to the Office of the Finance Minister directly - entities will meet the requirement to provide a copy of their corporate plan to the Finance Minister by emailing a copy to Finance at PGPA@finance.gov.au.

Note that amendments made the PGPA Rule, which took effect from the 2020-21 reporting year, requires the reporting of:

• key activities undertaken to achieve the entity’s purposes
• the operating context in which these activities are undertaken,
• who the entity cooperates with to achieve its purposes and this cooperation does this
• a discussion of the risk the entity manages and how these are managed.

If you wish to discuss these amendments or your entity’s 2021-22 corporate plan please email us at PGPA@finance.gov.au   

Nominations for the 2021 Commonwealth Procurement Awards for Excellence (Awards) are currently open and will close on Monday, 30 August 2021. All non-corporate Commonwealth entities and prescribed corporate Commonwealth entities are encouraged to nominate in one or more of the following awards categories:

• Building Entity Capability
• Delivering Innovation through Procurement
• Engaging with Small and Medium Enterprises
• Procuring for Digital Services.

The Procuring for Digital Services category is a new award this year. It recognises how procurement outcomes were achieved either through innovative digital enabled market approaches; or that best encouraged and enabled innovative digital solutions.

The Centre of Procurement Excellence encourages participation across all entities regardless of the scale of procurement activity and entities are able to submit nominations in more than one category. We encourage your entity to reflect on the procurement activities and related initiatives that you would like to showcase through this opportunity. 

To see previous award categories and winners, please go to the Finance website.

For further information, guidance or support on the Awards please contact us at procurementexcellence@finance.gov.au

In response to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, Comcover has adapted its face-to-face risk workshops to also be accessible virtually online. For 2021, we have decided to keep this approach and take on a blended learning environment of both face-to-face and virtual workshops. Face-to-face workshops will be held in Galambany Conference Centre at Department of Finance (1 Canberra Avenue, Forrest, ACT, 2600) and our virtual workshops are available on GovTeams.

Currently, we have three workshops across four different pathways available for free to all APS employees.

• Foundation Pathway - consists of two eLearning modules - Introduction to Risk and Introduction to Comcover provides an understanding basic risk management concepts and how risk is managed in the Commonwealth. This pathway is available to all Commonwealth officials, regardless of level or role.

• Generalist Pathway - Practical Risk Management: held over two days face-to-face, or three 90 minute virtual sessions. Practical Risk Management has an eLearning module to complete prior to attending the workshop. The workshop assists you in describing key risk management concepts, explaining and applying the risk management process, and producing a risk assessment and treatment plan.  This pathway is ideal for APS officers whose role requires them to engage with and apply their entity's risk management framework to successfully deliver outcomes.

• Specialist Pathway – Embedding Risk Management: Held over a two day face-to-face workshop, with a six to eight week break between day 1 and day 2, or held over three 90 minute virtual sessions. Embedding Risk Management workshop assists you in designing and developing a risk management framework for your entity, identify risk resources requirements, outlining roles and responsibilities for managing risk, guide the establishment and promotion of positive risk culture, and embed risk management into strategic planning for every day operations. This workshop and pathway is designed for APS officers that are required to design, implement and embed an entity's risk management framework.

• Executive Pathway – SES Professional Development: Held over a half day face-to-face workshop, or two 90 minute virtual sessions. SES Professional development workshop assists participants in recognising key and emerging risk management issues, foster a positive risk culture in their entity and across the Commonwealth. This course and pathway is specifically designed for SES officials.

If any of these free workshops sound beneficial to you or anybody within your entity, please register on the Comcover Learning Centre, or email comcover@comcover.com.au, or call 1800 651 540 – option 2. Remember, Risk is everyone’s business!

Please also find below a calendar of all upcoming Comcover workshops, both virtual and face-to-face. We look forward to seeing you attend!

Did you know that the Commonwealth Governance Structures Policy (Governance Policy) applies when proposing to create a new government body or reviewing an existing, government body? This includes statutory office-holders, committees and advisory structures. The Governance Policy supports determining a fit-for-purpose governance structure for new or existing government activities. Visit the Finance website to learn more about the Governance Policy and for helpful tools and guidance to support you choosing and maintaining the right governance structure to undertake a government activity. If you think you may need to apply the policy to a proposal Finance welcomes you contacting us via PGPA@finance.gov.au.