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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (22 April) . . Page.. 1263 ..

The Management Committee of CIN are aware of the problems experienced by ACTIV, and are now developing a new service. This new service is characterised by an open staff selection and supervision process, a Management Reference Group, and policies and procedures on the employment and management of staff in the organisation. These actions address a number of the issues raised in Mr Stanhope's question. As a planned aspect of the establishment process, the Department will commission a formal review of the service once it has been in operation for 12 months.

(3) Due to the restructure of ACTIV, this issue was not pursued. It is the responsibility of the auspicing body to ensure that workers comply with agency procedures and laws that are relevant to their work, such as Occupational Health and Safety or driving while licensed.

(4) ADDInc and the ACTIV program were re-organised before any final decision was made to formally review the location of the peer program. When the program was brought under the core ADDInc programs, the program was relocated from Ainslie into the City Centre. At the time, ADDInc chose not to pursue these issues any further. In the Tender 16 (1999) specifications the Department stated clearly that the new service is to be located in the Civic area. CIN is still seeking appropriate accommodation, but it is understood that they will acquire premises which are easily accessible by foot from the Civic shopping area.

(5) The two allegedly incomplete projects were a steroids project ($10,000) and a women's drug information booklet ($ 17,413). On page 14 of the 'Survival' report, it is reported that the Steroid's project was completed by ADDInc.

Regarding the Women's Information Booklet: limited information is available to the Departmental staff at this time to enable an informed response to this question. This information was gathered from files from 1996/97 financial years onwards, departmental staff involved in the alcohol and drug program in 1995-1998, and a previous employee of ACTIV.

(a) Information provided in a submission in 1997 to the Department from a previous worker of ACTIV indicates that the work on this project was completed by the workers at ACTIV. Departmental staff have indicated that the Department met with the Service Director to refocus this project twice due to a similar project being implemented within the Department. Substantially complete drafts were sighted by the Department. However, as the information replicated other sources of advice available, the project was subsequently cancelled and the booklet was not produced.

(b) The project funding was separate from ACTIV's ongoing grant for service provision.

(c) The project funds, which were specifically for the development of information, were expended for the purposes of the project. Publication would have required a further investment by the Department. Given development of other information it was decided by the Service Director and the Department that the project would not be developed further.

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