Building Better Governance

Commissioner’s foreword

My responsibilities as Public Service Commissioner encompass fostering leadership in the Australian Public Service (APS). A central responsibility of APS leaders is to ensure that sound governance policies and practices are embedded in their agencies.

Prominent examples in the media of private and public sector organisations losing their way have shifted governance into the spotlight. Achieving excellence in governance was identified as a key issue in my 2005–06 State of the Service Report.

The challenge for public servants is understanding the full responsibilities of good governance. The Constitution, common law, specific public sector legislation, guidelines, conventions and agreements state the ‘must do’ elements of governance. A range of documents, such as Foundations of Governance published by my Commission and numerous publications by the Department of Finance and Administration and the Australian National Audit Office, cover off the ‘musts’.

But there are other elements of good governance that are ‘should do’ elements. Building Better Governance, while covering some of the ‘musts’, focuses on providing guidance about the ‘shoulds’.

When I talked with public service senior executives about what guidance and advice would be most helpful to them, the overwhelming preference was for practical, directly relevant and common sense examples about what agencies were actually doing—in other words why, how and what worked.

These guidelines provide this. Part One articulates what we mean by governance in the public sector and why good governance is important. Part Two outlines the building blocks for developing better governance. However, these guidelines are rightly dominated by Part Three which consists of case studies provided by a range of agencies of varying size and complexity. They illustrate a variety of systems, tools, approaches and cultures developed to meet the specific needs of each agency.

The case studies demonstrate two important things. Firstly, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to governance. While there are common elements, themes and models, agencies need to develop systems that meet their specific circumstances and be prepared to adapt and evolve their governance arrangements to meet changing needs.

Secondly, governance can only work if it is part and parcel of the culture of the organisation—it needs to be actively upheld and implemented by every person in the organisation. Everyone must know and act on their responsibilities.

I hope you enjoy reading about the experiences of agencies in the APS. The online version of these guidelines will be refreshed from time to time as new, interesting case studies emerge.

I would like to acknowledge the Department of Finance and Administration for its advice during the development of this publication and staff of all the agencies who gave their time in helping us compile the case studies. We are very grateful to you all.

Lynelle Briggs
Australian Public Service Commissioner

Commissioner’s Foreword

Part One—What is Public Sector Governance?

Part Two—Building Blocks for Effective Governance

Part Three—Departmental Case Studies

Appendix A—ANAO ‘House of Public Sector Governance’

Appendix B—Governance and Planning Model

Appendix C—Examples of Internal Governance Structures

Please note that this publication has been amended to reflect that Stephen Bartos is the author of Public Sector Governance—Australia

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Building Better Governance

Commissioner’s foreword

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