Page 771 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 1 May 2007

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These guidelines and procedures are clearly doing their job, but as I said before, the government is continuing to seek to improve them. For example, Treasury recently conducted a review of credit card policies for other jurisdictions. This review found that overall the territory’s guidelines are consistent with other jurisdictions, but that some minor improvements could be made to the guidelines. These minor amendments were subsequently made.

The fact that goods and services are purchased using credit cards is not a reason for suspicion. Credit cards provide significant efficiencies in the purchasing and payment process. In fact, many suppliers prefer credit card payments as they are a cost effective and prompt method of payment. These points hold for individuals, companies and governments. This is the reason why Markus Mannheim, in his Canberra Sunday Times article on 25 February 2007, was able to identify that in the last financial year $3.5 million worth of goods and services were purchased by the ACT government using credit cards.

It regularly makes good financial sense to pay for goods and services using credit cards. Of course, while this sounds like a large number, it should be remembered that this represents only 0.2 per cent of the total non-salary expenditure for that period. As noted previously, the government recognises the importance of control mechanisms and has put appropriate frameworks in place to ensure that the government and its agencies are accountable for the use of credit cards.

ACT Procurement Solutions oversees the procurement processes at a whole of government level. This centralised system increases the government’s capacity to obtain value for money. At the same time it improves accountability by establishing clear roles and responsibilities across the ACT public sector. Within Procurement Solutions there are stringent processes and procedures in place and qualified and experienced staff to implement these processes across the ACT public service. Furthermore, Procurement Solutions has a well-established quality assurance process and detailed reporting requirements in place. To further enhance accountability the Auditor-General can review any aspect of Procurement Solutions’ performance or compliance, including its accountability framework.

The government continually seeks to build on and improve its procurement framework. For example, in response to a report by the Auditor-General in 2005, the government is increasing the reporting requirements to require all contracts over $20,000 to be reported publicly. This has further enhanced the accountability of all government departments and agencies. The government has a strong record on improving accountability and the financial accountability, and controls in the public sector have never been stronger.

MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (5.05): I would also like to make some comments about accountability and the matter of public importance that Mrs Burke has raised here today because I believe that this issue is crucial to the way in which we run our public sector and our government. Sitting here in the Assembly and passing legislation with lofty principles and high sounding rhetoric about objectives is all very well and good, but these directives make very little difference unless proper procedures are in place to ensure that the public sector is acting effectively.


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