Remaining accountable to the community.
Our governance framework provides the mechanism through which our organisational goals and objectives can be achieved.
It supports accountable decision-making by providing for clear lines of authority and for the monitoring and reporting of operational performance.
Our governance framework
Roles and accountabilities
Consulting with our staff
Statutory obligations
Enhancing strategic governance
Identifying and managing risks
Compliance and transparency
Our Governance Framework
Specifically, our governance framework aims to ensure the Office maintains its focus on:
- meeting its statutory responsibilities under the Ombudsman Act 2001
- effective and efficient performance management
- improving service delivery through an ongoing quality improvement program
- integrating risk management into organisational practices and processes
- reporting on performance.
Internally, we have a number of committees to support the Ombudsman in achieving the abovementioned goals, the principal ones being the:
- Ombudsman Management Group
- Staff Consultative Committee
- Workplace Health and Safety Committee.
Our accountability and compliance are also supported and monitored by the following external agencies and/or processes:
- Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee
- Estimates Committee
- Queensland Audit Office
- Freedom of Information.
Roles and accountabilities
Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee
While our Office is independent of government, to ensure we remain accountable to the community, we report to the Queensland Legislative Assembly through the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee (LCARC).
The LCARC comprises Members of Parliament from government and other political parties. Its role is to:
- monitor and review the performance of our Office
- report to the Legislative Assembly on any matter concerning the Ombudsman’s functions or the performance of those functions that LCARC considers should be drawn to the Assembly’s attention
- examine the Ombudsman’s annual report after it has been tabled in the Assembly and, if appropriate, comment on any aspect of the report
- report to the Assembly any changes to the functions, structures and procedures of the Office that LCARC considers desirable for the more effective operation of the Act.
The following arrangements are in place to help LCARC monitor and review our Office:
- LCARC, the Ombudsman and senior officers meet twice a year – once following the tabling of our annual report (November) and once preceding the estimates process (May)
- prior to the meetings, the Ombudsman provides a written response to questions on notice from LCARC, and these and other issues are discussed at the meeting
- the Ombudsman provides responses to LCARC’s requests for information as they arise.
Ombudsman Management Group
The Ombudsman Management Group is the chief decision-making body for our Office and consists of the Ombudsman, the Deputy Ombudsman, four Assistant Ombudsmen, the Manager of the Communication and Research Unit and the Manager of the Corporate Services Unit.
The group meets monthly to discuss financial and corporate governance issues, as well as operational issues of strategic significance.
The group provides leadership and direction to the Office and ensures that our activities and performance meet our strategic priorities and statutory responsibilities.
Back to top
Consulting with our staff
This year, our Staff Consultative Committee (SCC) continued to play a key role in ensuring that:
- staff views, concerns and proposals were effectively communicated to management and timely responses provided
- staff had input into key decisions affecting them.
The SCC meets quarterly, with additional meetings as required.
The SCC’s staff representatives were again actively involved in the 2008–09 strategic planning process to ensure staff input into the strategic direction of our Office.
The SCC also provided valuable staff feedback and input on issues such as:
- the results of a survey of our staff conducted by external consultants
- planning for the relocation of the Office
- changes to internal policies.
Maintaining our duty of care – Workplace Health and Safety Committee
This committee oversees and provides advice to manage workplace health and safety risks in our Office. It continued its quarterly meetings to facilitate a wholeof- office approach to improve workplace health and safety.
Back to top
Once again, our Office maintained a credible audit program by working cooperatively with both internal and external audit parties.
Internal audit
An external consultant performs the internal audit function under a Charter approved by the Ombudsman, which guarantees independence of the auditor and unrestricted access to our Office’s corporate systems to undertake the audit.
2007–08 was the last year of a three year contract with our internal auditors, GPS Business Systems. The audit program was assisted by the internal systems appraisal process undertaken by the Corporate Services Unit on a quarterly basis.
This year’s audit primarily focused on checking processes following the handover of the majority of our payroll tasks to our shared service provider, the Queensland Parliamentary Service.
External audit
Our Office was able to meet the new timeframes imposed on government agencies for the preparation of financial reports for 2007–08.
The audit report and certificate for our financial statements can be found in section five. The Auditor-General’s delegate has provided an unqualified certificate indicating the Office’s compliance with financial management requirements and the accuracy and fairness of the financial statements.
Freedom of Information
Under the Freedom of Information Act 1992, members of the community are entitled to apply for access to documents held by our Office. They are also entitled to apply to amend personal information that is held by our Office.
In 2007–08, we received 24 FOI applications. A full summary of applications received and processed, including their nature and outcomes can be found in Appendix 3.
Public interest disclosures
Under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 1994, we are required to report on public interest disclosures made to our Office, concerning our Office as well as entities within our jurisdiction.
In 2007–08, we received 17 public interest disclosures of maladministration on the part of public sector agencies. Of those:
- five are still under consideration
- three were assessed as not warranting investigation
- four were investigated and resulted in our finding that no maladministration had been established
- one was investigated and resulted in our finding that maladministration had been established
- two were withdrawn by the complainant
- two were the subject of investigations which we discontinued.
Annual report
Our 2006–07 annual report was tabled in Parliament in November 2007. The annual report is one of the key vehicles we use to report on our activities in each financial year as part of our governance framework.
We continually work to improve our annual report’s readability and format and our efforts were rewarded this year when we received a Bronze Award at the Australasian Reporting Awards in June 2008.
< Back | Top | Next >