External Scrutiny

It is vital to scrutinise the commitment of the APS to deliver government policy, whether directly or by contract … On occasion, services are riddled with administrative complexity, often introduced for the very best policy reasons, but imposing heavy costs on recipients. Administrative law, and the structures of administrative scrutiny, play a valuable role in identifying those burdens, and challenging us to examine how they might be reduced.

Dr Shergold in an address to the Australian Institute of Administrative Law, entitled ‘Administrative Law and Public Service’, 3 July 2003

The legal actions, including decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, that affected the Prime Minister and the department during 2003–04 are dealt with in the report on performance for Output 4.3.

There were no reports or inquiries by the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office in 2003–04 that dealt directly with any of the department’s responsibilities.

The department participated in the ANAO’s Agency Management of Special Accounts cross-agency performance audit, the outcome of which has yet to be tabled. The department also made comment on the cross-portfolio performance audit of performance management. The report is scheduled for tabling in the first quarter of 2004–05.