Building Better Governance

Part Three—Departmental Case Studies

Department of Immigration and Citizenship

How a department developed and implemented a governance committee focusing on values and standards to improve departmental processes and performance, through strong leadership and effective communication, and by applying sound accountability, reporting and compliance systems. Identification of possible risks and paying attention to issues of integrity were also important.

The department

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) delivers the Australian Government’s migration, refugee, humanitarian, citizenship, multicultural affairs, settlement, immigration compliance, and immigration detention programmes. DIAC’s purpose is to ‘enrich Australia through the well managed entry and settlement of people’.

The department has about 7 000 staff located in Australia and overseas, including about 850 locally engaged staff.

The challenge

Late in 2005, the Palmer and Comrie reports into the former Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs’ handling of specific immigration matters highlighted problems with the department’s performance in client service, accountability and leadership. To address these issues, the new Secretary decided to revise the department’s governance framework and culture. As part of this large change, the department set up a number of new governance committees to strengthen accountability and decision making, and manage particular areas of risk to the department.

One of the first governance committees to meet in December 2005 was the Values and Standards Committee. This committee was established to address key elements of the findings of the Palmer and Comrie reports. It was required to engage actively with key stakeholders and ensure that staff were trained to do the work expected of them. It was also asked to consider the department’s understanding and application of the APS Values, especially in the areas of accountability, leadership, ethics, integrity and the public perception of the department’s work in those areas.

The Values and Standards Committee is one of five governance committees that report to the key senior advisory committee, Executive Committee (EC). EC is supported by a Corporate Leadership Group. Other committees reporting to the EC include the Department Audit Committee, People Management Committee, Systems Committee and DIAC Performance Management Committee.

The work of the DIAC Performance Management Committee (DPMC) provides an example of how the governance structure is helping to improve and manage the quality and consistency of the department’s performance. DPMC is responsible for establishing service standards and strategies, monitoring service delivery performance, and ensuring best practice is identified and replicated. This committee is supported by Performance Management Boards in each of the policy and programme divisions, ensuring that all areas of the department contribute to the performance management system.

Large and complex departments such as DIAC are always challenged by the need to balance investment with available resources, and this is a major focus of the restructured department—balancing cultural, financial and risk management aspects of its operations.

The system

The Values and Standards Committee operates at a strategic level, is open and accountable, and assists the department to meet community expectations. It has strong support from the Secretary and senior executive.

To ensure depth and value regarding ethics and whole of government understanding as well as a broader range of experience and an independent view, the committee includes four external members: the Deputy Public Service Commissioner; the Deputy Commonwealth Ombudsman; and two community members such as an ex-departmental retiree and a former Integrity Commissioner at the Australian Taxation Office/former Deputy Public Service Commissioner.

The committee is chaired by a Deputy Secretary and the internal members represent state, territory, overseas and national office interests. National office participants reflect areas of particular interest for example training, client services and compliance.

The Values and Standards Committee is required to meet quarterly, but actually meets every couple of months due to the amount of work it needs to deal with.

It can commission reports from other areas of the department and ask for a review of a policy or work programme.

What was done

The Values and Standards Committee has an advisory role and makes recommendations to business units on issues including training, departmental processes and policy review, development and implementation. These recommendations are passed to the relevant business area by the secretariat (sometimes under the authority of the Chair) and in most cases are adopted by business areas.

The committee follows up on the suggestions and advice it has provided and expects to receive feedback on progress, changes and successful implementation.

In addition to the committee, the department took the significant step of establishing a Values and Standards Branch specifically responsible for providing secretariat support to, and undertaking projects on behalf of, the committee. The secretariat also adds value by contributing to content, injecting a departmental view, and actively managing the external members. It meets with all members individually to discuss and explore suggestions for better outcomes for the committee, and ensure that the committee meets all of its reporting requirements.

The branch also acts as a conduit between departmental business areas and the committee. It is now taking responsibility for other departmental issues such as administration of the newly developed staff attitudinal survey.

Importantly, the Values and Standards Branch was established to help drive the implementation of a new departmental culture. It supervised the development of an initiative designed to deal with deficiencies in leadership identified by the Palmer and Comrie reports. The IDEAL Programme (Immigration Dilemmas: Ethics, APS Values and Leadership) has the strong support of the Secretary, complements basic departmental training and encourages dialogue between leaders and their teams to develop appropriate, values-based responses to ethical dilemmas.

The Values and Standards Branch provides regular progress reports on IDEAL to the committee, and committee members are involved in and make suggestions about most aspects of the programme including content, methodology and evaluation.

After each meeting, the committee provides draft minutes and a summary of activities to EC (as the department’s key senior advisory committee). In accordance with the Chief Executive Instructions and its own terms of reference, the committee reports to the Secretary every six months on issues such as its general operation; risks facing the department regarding values; and the committee’s future programme. The Minister also receives updates on significant projects (for example, IDEAL) undertaken as a result of committee recommendations.

The Values and Standards Branch has developed a comprehensive communications plan designed to ensure that all key stakeholders are informed of matters relating to the operations and requirements of the committee. The plan includes actions required of the Values and Standards Branch to support the committee in its governance role, timing, targets, and risk mitigation strategies.

Monitoring

Part of the challenge and monitoring task for all departments is always to ensure that decisions are taken on a sound financial basis, and DIAC is no exception.

Following the Palmer and Comrie reports, the department as a whole is committed to regularly reviewing its governance arrangements. Each governance committee is responsible for monitoring the areas of risk for which it has responsibility, and for determining broad directions and strategies for dealing with those risks.

The Values and Standards Committee regularly monitors staff attitudes, behaviour and complaint handling consistent with the APS Values. It provides advice on policy and procedures and has specifically assisted the department in the development of improved systems for collecting and analysing complaint information. This review process and information system constitutes a useful form of ‘early warning alert’ for the department’s strategic planning processes.

The terms of reference of the Values and Standards Committee require the Secretary to initiate a review of the charter, membership and performance of the committee at least once every two years.

In January 2007, the department commissioned an external review of its governance arrangements. The review concluded in May 2007 and its outcomes are being progressively implemented. Among other things the review examined the department’s governance committee structure, whether governance was well understood in the department and whether this knowledge was being translated into appropriate behaviours, including consultation and communication across the department.

Benefits

The Values and Standards Committee is considered an exemplar committee within the department and it attempts to model best practice. The committee has helped to institutionalise the department’s new approaches to leadership and values consistent with the APS Values and Code of Conduct. Its external members provide an important ‘outside’ perspective. It has also helped to enhance a more positive and client-focused culture and ensured that training activities are aligned with APS Values.

The committee has identified areas of duplication in the department and has advised how to draw together disparate activities and better integrate them into departmental programmes. For example, prior to 2005, several different branches of the department dealt with complaints handling. This committee identified the problem and the department has now adopted a software system which monitors, tracks and coordinates complaints handling for the entire department. As a result, the department is moving to a much better client service regime.

The committee takes a broad portfolio-wide overview of activities, and feeds the information it gains back into the department. Because of this, it has an important coordination and linking role, and can promote departmental cohesion in matters such as departmental integrity and quality client service.

Key messages

Leadership, support and enthusiasm from the Secretary greatly assist in promoting and achieving cultural change in a department.
A dedicated branch to manage governance issues provides both appropriate staff resource to achieve outcomes, and the message that the issues are important to the Executive.
External members (Government and/or non-government) can add depth, value and an outsider’s perspective to governance committees.
To obtain early warning of problems you need to develop quality information systems and appropriate systems for monitoring performance and conformance issues.
Evaluation needs to form part of any approach to governance.

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