26 September 2023

Shared Services not sharing success

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An audit of Shared Services’ delivery of HR and finance services has found that governance arrangements for the oversight of service delivery to directorates and agencies has not been effective.

In his report Shared Services Delivery of HR and Finance Services, Auditor-General Michael Harris assessed the effectiveness of Shared Services’ delivery of human resources (HR), finance and information, communication and technology (ICT) services to ACT Government departments.

“Shared Services commenced in 2007 with the intention of achieving efficiencies, reducing duplication and enhancing corporate services,” Mr Harris said.

“While a range of governance mechanisms have been put in place over a period of years, these were not consistently applied or effective in their implementation.”

He said the dissolution of a Services Partnership Agreement between Shared Services and the Strategic Board in 2016 “without sufficient explanation” had not been replaced by a similar mechanism to provide a relationship between departments and Shared Services.

“A series of governance and oversight bodies were also established, which were expected to have a key role in the governance and oversight of Shared Services and its delivery of HR and finance services to ACT Government agencies,” Mr Harris said.

“The Customer Council, which was the main forum for Shared Services’ accountability, was not operating effectively as a governance and oversight mechanism since the discontinuation of the Services Partnership Agreement.”

He said recent customer satisfaction surveys had shown mixed results, including a continuing decline in satisfaction with HR services (since 2015) and an increase in satisfaction with finance services between 2018 and 2019.

Mr Harris made four recommendations including: that Shared Services, under the auspice of the Quality and Measurement Advisory Committee, should develop a services agreement that identifies and documents role and responsibilities; that it improve its risk management activities; and that it develop an approach to benchmarking of its services.

The Audit Team was Katinka Mutandadzi, Matthew Bowden and a consultancy.

The Auditor-General’s 85-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.

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