Performance Overview

Page Index

• Staff performance
• Output performance
• Departmental performance

Staff performance

The performance of individual staff members is monitored and measured through the department’s Performance Appraisal and Development Scheme (introduced in August 2001), which involves the development of individual performance agreements, incorporating common performance standards at each level, and a process of performance review and assessment. More information about the scheme is provided in the Management and Accountability chapter.

Output performance

Outputs report on their performance - in terms of specific indicators of price, quality, quantity and timeliness - in the Report on Performance.

Departmental performance

Details of the departmental appropriations and expenses against these appropriations are set out in Table 1.

Price

The total price of providing the department’s outputs in 2002-03 was $47.4 million. This comprised a $44.5 million appropriation and $2.8 million from other sources (interest, the sale of goods and services, free resources, special accounts and miscellaneous revenue). More detailed information is provided in the financial performance section of this chapter, below.

Table 1 shows details of the department’s expenditure against the department’s price of outputs appropriation.

Quality

All the department’s activities are expected to achieve satisfactory results in terms of:

• the degree of satisfaction of the Prime Minister and other portfolio ministers, their offices and the departmental Executive - as expressed through formal and informal feedback - with the quality and timeliness of advice and the achievement of key tasks
• an assessment of outputs against the annual divisional work plans and individual performance agreements.

During 2002-03, the department’s overall performance was satisfactory in terms of both quality criteria.

Note: Figures have been rounded to the nearest dollar.

(a) The actual expense for the allowance to former Governors-General, including Dr Hollingworth, includes $3.3 million, representing a one-off adjustment to the superannuation liability in respect of former Governors-General following an independent actuarial assessment.

(b) Expenditure includes one-off costs associated with Dr Hollingworth’s resignation.

Other department-wide measures

There are certain issues in relation to which the department’s performance is measured across all output groups, rather than separately by output. They are: Cabinet minutes, ministerial correspondence, parliamentary questions on notice, ministerial briefings, and requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). Each of these is discussed in more detail - in terms of timeliness and quantity indicators - below.

During the period 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2003, 92 per cent of minutes from meetings of Cabinet and its committees were settled and circulated within 24 hours of the conclusion of the meetings; 96 per cent were settled and circulated in 2001-02. The small decrease in 2002-03 was mostly due to the late release of Cabinet committee minutes. The number of Cabinet committee minutes produced increased by 37.5 per cent during 2002-03.

The department processed approximately 159,000 pieces of correspondence - an average of 636 per day - addressed to the Prime Minister or to a minister assisting the Prime Minister.

The largest volumes of correspondence related to the war in Iraq, the Bali bombings or the former Governor-General.

Approximately 92 per cent - being 146,000 items of correspondence - was processed within the department’s timeliness targets.

Some 3,892 briefings (in the form of minutes) were provided to the Prime Minister, parliamentary secretaries and ministers assisting the Prime Minister, on a range of topics covering all four output groups and the various corporate support and information services functions of the department.

The volume of ministerial correspondence received in the past ten years is shown in Figure 4. The figure shows that the annual volume of correspondence has been gradually increasing during the past five years.

Figure 4  Items of correspondence processed

The department received 106 parliamentary questions on notice during 2002-03 : 67 from the House of Representatives and 39 from the Senate. The department had 21 questions on hand at 1 July 2002.

Responses to 58 questions were lodged during the year: 35 from the House of Representatives and 23 from the Senate. The average time taken to lodge responses to questions asked in 2002-03 was 66 days for the House of Representatives and 62 days for the Senate.

Nineteen questions asked in 2002-03 - ten from the House of Representatives and nine from the Senate - were transferred to other ministers. There were 29 questions on hand at 30 June 2003. The target of 30 days for responding to Senate questions on notice and 60 days for responding to House of Representatives questions on notice was not met this year.

The department received 26 FOI requests during 2002-03. The department had six FOI requests on hand at 1 July 2002. Twenty FOI requests were finalised during the year and 12 FOI requests were on hand at 30 June 2003.