Page 2439 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 22 August 2006
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Something is happening at long last, but it has created enormous difficulties for organisations which have had people working for them and artists receiving grants not knowing until the death knell whether they have a future in the next fiscal year. We hope some of these issues are ironed out as soon as possible so that arts in the ACT does not suffer on a wholesale basis as a result of organisational ineptitude or insensitivity to the needs of the artistic practitioners we are so fortunate to have in our territory.
On this matter it is hardly surprising to discover more instances of administrative issues and productivity loss as a result of poorly devised chopping and changing within the ACT public service. Take the data migration issues being experienced as a result of the new chris21 human resource system. I remember having the opportunity to be on the estimates committee the year before, hearing a series of questions asked about this, being assured everything was on time and within budget, and it was going to go like clockwork. My colleague Dr Foskey also pursued it. She had obviously got some drift that things were not in order. Mr Smyth was on about it as well.
That has turned out to be another headache. It raises questions as to the thoroughness of those who were involved in putting this system in and getting it right. Indeed, it was the chief executive who indicated the following in estimates:
It is certainly true that the migration of data, particularly annual leave and long service leave information, was more difficult than originally expected.
Further on, he stated:
There have been … difficulties in getting annual leave, long service leave and superannuation correct.
It is these accumulated losses in efficiency that are experienced, like problems of this nature, that have been a fundamental characteristic of the approach of the Stanhope government. Another instance of the administrative death by a thousand cuts that this government is slowly succumbing to is incorrect payment summaries being sent out to ACT public servants who had a reportable fringe benefit last year. I have had constituents write to me who are concerned as to the accuracy of their payment summaries. I have never seen any satisfactory public response to the fact that I have raised this in the media.
The error here in government—and something as fundamental as getting payment summaries right is an inexcusable error—caused unnecessary headaches and delays for ACT public servants seeking to lodge their tax returns early and was an extraordinary mistake for a government to make. Sadly, this is indicative of quality issues with top-line management which are being demonstrated at present.
There was another celebrated case in Treasury I highlighted some time ago with some most inappropriate things appearing on a website. These are all things that speak about how much management is on top of their game. The responsibility for this falls back to the ministry.
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