Page 1736 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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assisting individuals to attain improved process outcomes; and promoting high standards of public administration in the ACT public service, including in relation to complaints handling and provision of guidance on acceptable behaviours and standards of conduct for officials.
In the context of the single ACT public service agency, these priorities will see the commissioner’s role increasingly focus on standards of conduct and behaviour, incorporating both the promotion of positive aspects as well as responding to negative ones. In my view, the ACT public service must be able to openly accept and recognise feedback rather than engage in defensiveness when complaints are made that so often impact on the process and eventual outcome.
I am advised that the People and Performance Council has endorsed the adoption of the Ombudsman’s better practice guidelines for complaints handling to provide a more consistent and transparent approach to complaints across the ACT public service. Implementation of this approach will also include the addressing of issues outlined in the 10-point plan for improving complaints handling by the ACT public service published last year by the ACT Ombudsman’s Office.
As part of the agreed approach and in advance of the settling of implementation detail, enhanced triaging arrangements are being put in place through Canberra Connect and directorate websites. This will make it easier for customers to raise their concerns or other feedback in the right place.
The proposed approach will establish a policy framework setting out the basic components of a sound feedback mechanism while allowing for individual directorate variations reflecting the complexity of their business line and quality of existing procedures. An important facet of this mechanism will be the requirement to keep citizens informed of decisions or progress relating to the feedback they have provided.
The government welcomes and recognises the important role played by agencies charged with overseeing government activities, like the Ombudsman and the Auditor-General. It also recognises the need for all of those institutions and relevant statutory office holders to work together if citizens are to be treated as individuals with one story to tell, rather than being required to pursue different aspects of their concerns through different channels.
It was with this in mind that I transferred responsibility for the Ombudsman from the Attorney-General’s portfolio to the Chief Minister’s portfolio, alongside the Auditor-General. This arrangement will facilitate closer cooperation and engagement between those integrity agencies and the Head of Service and support the taking of a wider systemic view of issues emerging across the ACT public service as a whole.
At the end of last year, I released an exposure draft of the revised public interest disclosure legislation to replace the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1994, to bring it up to date and ensure that it provides appropriate protection to people disclosing conduct in the public sector that is contrary to the public interest. Part of this process is to incorporate insights from the whistling while they work project.
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