PGPA Newsletter 85

Performance Community of Practice (CoP) sessions will be held on 21 November and 23 November at the Department of Finance, One Canberra Avenue, Forrest. The COPs will be held in Finance’s conference facilities from 10.00am to 11.30am on both days. 

These sessions will provide an update on activity that has occurred since the last CoP sessions held in October/November 2019, including:

• the amendment to the PGPA Rule in respect to corporate plans
• the amendment to the Finance Secretary’s Direction in respect to Portfolio Budget Statements
• assurance audits of annual performance statements
• annual reports, the Digital Annual Report Tool and the Transparency Portal
• digitising information about PGPA entities and companies
• updates to Resource Management Guides
• the Evaluation Policy and Toolkit (RMG-130).

Bookings for these sessions can be made through Eventbrite using the links below:

• Monday 21 November Session
  • In person registration
  • No live stream available
     
• Wednesday 23 November Session
  • In person registration
  • Live stream registration

If you have any questions or issues with your registration please contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au

The Commonwealth Evaluation Toolkit (RMG-130) has been updated and is available on the Finance website. Changes made following feedback from stakeholders, include:

• Updates to most of the templates available in the Toolkit. The updated templates feature a uniform, professional appearance, enabling them to be used “off the shelf” by small entities who may not have access to internal graphic design or communications support. This will increase administrative efficiency by allowing them to be used in flexible ways, with or without changes to formatting to align with branding by Commonwealth entities.
• New additional resources including an evidence bank accordion and 2 additional documents added to support the DSS Be Connected Case Study’
• Minor content changes across the board.

Commonwealth Evaluation Community of Practice (CoP):
Since its launch in early September, the Commonwealth Evaluation CoP has grown to 285 members from 53 Commonwealth entities.

By connecting people from across the Commonwealth who are committed to sharing information, experiences and resources, and learning from each other, the CoP aims to support and promote better practice evaluation across the policy cycle.

The CoP is a place where people with a role or an interest in evaluation can come together to learn, share, and collaborate on topics such as:

• Finding solutions to common issues faced when conducting evaluations
• Assisting in building a culture of evaluation in the Commonwealth
• Helping to implement the Commonwealth Evaluation Policy and continually improve resources available in the Evaluation Toolkit
• Learning about evaluation and related topics through discussions, workshops and forums.

The CoP operates under a hybrid model, including both online and face-to-face communication and engagement methods allowing members from across the country to interact in ways that best suit them.

If you would like to become a member, please complete the member registration questionnaire.

If you have any queries in relation to the Toolkit or CoP, please contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au.

Entities are reminded that they are required to publish their Annual Reports to the Transparency Portal as soon as practicable after tabling in Parliament.

It is recommended that prior to publishing, entities seek a Digital Review of the Transparency Portal version, by Finance, to ensure all the digital features of the report are enabled and that the data templates are correctly completed. To seek a Digital Review email  us at dar@finance.gov.au.

To ensure data searches are accurate within the Transparency Portal, Finance will reach out to those entities where anomalies are found in the data templates and assist you in correcting these.

Entities are reminded to use the Annual Report RMGs for support.

If you have any questions please contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au

RMG-200 Duties of Accountable Authorities has been refreshed and is available on the Finance website.

The guidance has been enhanced to align with the digital approach to our guidance and focuses on the duties in sections 15 to 19 of the PGPA Act to support an accountable authority (Secretaries, Chief Executives and governing board), to fulfil the important role of governing their entity and contributing to the priorities and objectives of the government.
 

If you have any feedback on our RMGs or need further information in relation these updates, please contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au.

RMG-203 General duties of officials has been refreshed and is available on the Finance website.

The guidance has been enhanced to align with the digital approach to our guidance and focuses on the duties in sections 25 to 29 of the PGPA Act to support officials of non-corporate Commonwealth entities and corporate Commonwealth entities (collectively, Commonwealth entities), including their accountable authorities.
 

If you have any feedback on our RMGs or need further information in relation these updates, please contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au.

Benchmarking

The process of finalising the 2023 Benchmarking program (the Program) is currently underway. The Comcover Risk Management Benchmarking Program is a self-assessment tool which gives participating entities an opportunity to evaluate the maturity of their entity’s risk capability.

The Survey enables Fund Members to assess their risk management capability against the following five themes - Risk Management Governance, Risk Culture, Risk Capability, Risk Management Practices, and Organisational Resilience and Agility.

Findings from the Survey can be useful in helping Fund Members understand how successfully risk management has been integrated into their business operations, and assist them in identifying areas for improvement and prioritising risk management activities for capability uplift.

The call to nominate a Benchmarking representative is going out this month with the survey being released in February 2023 with a five week window to respond.
If you have any queries about Benchmarking please contact comcover@comcover.com.au
 

The Commonwealth Risk Management Policy 2023

As announced last month, the Minister for Finance has approved the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy (the Policy) which will come into effect on 1 January 2023. Key changes in the 2023 Policy include:

• consolidation and prioritisation of the existing elements;
• the introduction of an element on control effectiveness;
• the introduction of an element on emerging risks; and
• simplified and more direct language.

A companion guide to the Policy, Guide to Implementing the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy (RMG-211) and information sheets and case studies supporting the Policy will be released on a redesigned website shortly.

At the recent Commonwealth Risk Managers Forum, Finance hosted presentations from experienced risk management professionals on how to approach the Policy’s new requirements on control effectiveness and emerging risks. A recording of the presentations is available on the Commonwealth Risk Managers Forum GovTeams page.

If you would like further information, or would like to be emailed the Policy in advance of it being published, please get in touch with us at riskpolicyreview@finance.gov.au.
 

Commonwealth Awards for Excellence in Risk Management

The Commonwealth Awards for Excellence in Risk Management (the Awards) closed on 30 September.

High quality nominations from a range of agencies were received again this year in the Enterprise Wide, Risk Initiative and Risk in Focus (Shared Risk) categories.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on the 6th of December at the National Museum of Australia.  The Awards ceremony will be live streamed for people to view.   
 

Comcover Education

Comcover’s workshops are being revised to reflect the new Commonwealth Risk Management Policy (CRMP) coming into effect on 1 January 2023.

The refreshed workshops will have an added focus on:

• Better embedding risk management into strategic and day-to-day decision-making processes.
• Enhancing organisational culture in relation to risk management.
• Assessing and documenting the effectiveness of controls.
• Identifying and managing shared risks.
• Strengthening the identification of emerging risks in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

It is planned to conduct two pilot workshops so Comcover is looking for participants who are interested in attending the workshops and are keen to provide valuable feedback for our revised programs.

As preparation for the workshop participants will receive a copy of the new CRMP, and draft resource management guidance materials in advance of the workshop.

A pilot workshop for the following programs will be run as follows:

• SES Risk Management Professional Development Program:  6 December
• Specialist Program: Embedding Risk Management:  24 November (Day 1) 15 December (Day 2)

If you have any queries regarding these pilots or would like to attend please contact us at comcover@comcover.com.au or phone 1800 651 540 – Option 2

The Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Forum has approved the revised Australian Government Investigations Standard (AGIS) 2022.

AGIS 2022 will be published on the Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) website shortly through this page. The AFP, as the new steward, will also be communicating the release of the AGIS through various newsletters and relevant communities of practice but most importantly, through written advice to relevant Australian Government entity accountable authorities.

Key changes in the AGIS 2022 include:

• principles based allowing for entity implementation in their respective environments 
• focus on investigations as a capability with the introduction of four streams:
  • personnel
  • information and evidence management
  • investigative practices
  • quality assurance 

The update to the AGIS 2022, the first in 10 years, has been a significant collaborative effort. Thank you to the invited agency representatives of the AGIS Business Reference Group who contributed to the review with their pivotal ideas and feedback to develop AGIS 2022 into a future proof standard for use across all investigation types (criminal, civil and administrative).  

If you would like further information, please get in touch via at AGIS-Review@afp.gov.au

Resource Management Guides (RMGs) are available to support you in the application of the PGPA Act and Rule requirements.

An index of RMGs is available and all RMGs on the website are the current version. When RMG updates occur users are notified through the PGPA Newsletter, issued via email and available on the Finance website home page under the Latest News section. Printed versions are only current at the time of printing, so be sure to use the digital version in the first instance.

Any comments on the RMGs should be sent to PGPA@finance.gov.au.