A performance audit of how well three Local Councils amalgamated separately in 2016 have developed new and efficient organisational structures, has found them all to have made progress.
In her report, Workforce Reform in Three Amalgamated Councils, Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford found that the Inner West Council and the Snowy Monaro and Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Councils were now operating with single workforces and had largely achieved the milestones they planned for the first stage of their amalgamations.
“None have finished reviewing and aligning services across their former Council areas, nor integrated their ICT systems,” Ms Crawford said.
“They need to do this to be in a position to implement an optimal structure.”
She said the next challenge would be to work out future service levels across the new Council areas and make any accordant workforce adjustments.
Her report also noted that amalgamations represented a substantial period of change for affected communities and amalgamated Councils should be routinely reporting to their communities about the costs and benefits of amalgamation.
The audit recommended all three Councils establish future service offerings and service levels and ensure that organisation structures were aligned with service levels and integrated ICT systems.
It also recommended the Inner West Council and Snowy Monaro Regional Council d report efficiency and savings outcomes associated with workforce reform and actively monitor progress against milestones.
Finally, it recommended the Department of Planning and Industry develop a suite of efficiency and economy indicators and start reporting the performance of Councils against those indicators to assist with benchmarking.
The Auditor-General’s 31-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
