Monitoring Performance

We monitor our performance to ensure that we are achieving our required outputs and outcomes and to ensure that we remain accountable for our performance. The outcomes and outputs framework helps us to do this by focusing our attention on the Government’s goals and objectives. The identification of appropriate performance indicators, and reporting of actual results against these performance indicators, is a key element in our accountability framework.

We monitor our performance in a number of ways:

Our Executive Committee meets weekly and has established a regular cycle of reporting to ensure that members can monitor important aspects of our corporate performance. These include: our financial management; our actions to meet requests for information or advice from our key stakeholder (the Treasurer); the progress of departmental legislation, Freedom of Information requests, staff turnover and recruitment processes; and whether our correspondence is meeting our performance targets for turnaround times.

Our Corporate Management Group meets monthly and has established a regular quarterly cycle of reporting to ensure that members can monitor important aspects of our corporate performance. These include: our financial management; the quality of our Cabinet submissions and our advice to the Treasurer; the progress of our projects and major activities against agreed milestones; and whether our correspondence is meeting our performance targets for turnaround times.

Our Audit and Risk Management Committee meets every six weeks and is responsible for the quality assurance of our financial management and reporting, and for the management of key risks. The committee monitors:

• the Department’s external audit program in conjunction with the Tasmanian Audit Office;
• the Department’s internal audit program, and the effectiveness and integrity of the internal and external audit functions;
• compliance with our corporate governance principles (including our systems of internal control and risk management);
• compliance with our accounting policies and principles to ensure that they accord with Australian Accounting Standards; and
• our quality assurance systems, to ensure continuous improvement in our processes and procedures.