Performance Overview

Page Index

• Staff performance
• Price
• Performance criteria
• Other department-wide measures

This section provides an overview of staff performance, and departmental performance assessed in terms of price, quality and other department-wide measures.

Each output reports on its individual performance, in terms of the indicators identified in the Portfolio Budget Statements, in the Report on Performance chapter.

Staff performance

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

Price

The total price of the department’s outputs in 2004–05 was $64 million. This comprised $60.7 million from government and $3.3 million from other sources (namely, the sale of goods and services, special accounts and miscellaneous revenue).

Details of the price of outputs and the administered and departmental expenses incurred in delivering the department’s outputs are detailed in Table 1. The table also shows the budget allocation for the 2005–06 financial year for these items.

a This column shows the full-year budget, including additional estimates, supplementary additional estimates and Administrative Arrangement Orders.

b This column shows the budget estimates prior to additional estimates.

c The result reflects the transfer of the Office of the Status of Women to the Department of Family and Community Services following the Administrative Arrangements Order of 26 October 2004.

d This payment was a one-off capital grant to the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.

e The total Administered Expenses in this table do not agree with the total Administered Expenses in the financial statements as this table is limited to appropriated expenses and therefore does not include expenses from the Media Commissions Special Account.

f Revenue from other sources includes receipts from the Campaign Advertising Special Account and resources received free of charge.

g The total price of outputs does not agree with the total resources for outputs in this table as the receipts in the Campaign Advertising Special Account that contribute to departmental outputs are limited to the expenses incurred by the Central Advertising System which forms part of Output 4.4. The balance of the receipts retained in the Special Account.

h This figure represents the average staffing level for 2004–05.

Note: Figures have been rounded to the nearest $1,000.

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Performance criteria

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

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

During 2004–05, the department achieved satisfactory results in terms of the above criteria.

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: 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 below.

During the period 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005, the department processed more than 164,000 items of correspondence—an average of 657 per day—addressed to the Prime Minister.

The largest volumes of correspondence related to the continuing involvement of the Australian Defence Force in Iraq, immigration issues, Millennium Development Goals, maritime borders with East Timor, live animal exports, and forestry in Tasmania.

Approximately 93 per cent of correspondence was processed on time.

Some 5,995 briefings (minutes) were provided to the Prime Minister, parliamentary secretary and ministers assisting the Prime Minister—more than twice the number for 2003–04.

The volume of ministerial correspondence received in the past ten years is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 Items of correspondence processed

Text description of figure 5

The number of parliamentary questions on notice increased substantially in 2004–05 compared to previous years. The Prime Minister received 207 parliamentary questions on notice during the year, of which 203 were received in the period following the 2004 election. This can be compared to 93 questions in 2003–04 and an average of 86 questions per year in the four years from 2000–01 to 2003–04.

Of the 207 questions received in the year, 173 were from the House of Representatives and 34 were from the Senate.

Responses to 65 questions were lodged during the year: 55 from the House of Representatives and ten from the Senate. The average time taken to lodge responses to questions asked in 2004–05 was 89 days for the House of Representatives and 97 days for the Senate.

Eleven questions asked in 2004–05—eight from the House of Representatives and three from the Senate—were transferred to other ministers. There were 127 questions on hand as at 30 June 2005.

Many questions had a significant number of sub-questions and sought annual data for up to eight years.

The department was responsible for managing 34 requests for information under the FOI Act received during 2004–05, plus 24 existing FOI requests on hand at 1 July 2004. During the year, 39 FOI requests were finalised, leaving 19 FOI requests on hand at 30 June 2005.

The department received three applications for internal review during the reporting period, and four were finalised.

Further information about the department’s FOI procedures and about access to departmental and archival records in various categories appears in Appendix 2. More information on FOI activity is to be found in the annual report on the operation of the FOI Act produced by the Attorney-General’s Department.