A performance audit of workforce planning by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has concluded that it has been largely effective in its support of the organisation’s key objectives.
In his report Workforce Planning in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Auditor-General, Grant Hehir said the sensitivity of ASIO’s role required a workforce with high-level security clearances and often specialised skillsets.
“This audit can provide assurance to the Parliament that ASIO is appropriately managing and aligning workforce requirements to key activities and effectively processing Top Secret Positive Vetting (TS (PV)) assessments to support Australian Intelligence Community workforce requirements,” Mr Hehir said.
He said that while ASIO had not established an approved implementation plan for workforce planning, it had begun or implemented the majority of the actionable items in its Workforce Plan 2025.
“ASIO has not established monitoring and reporting on workforce planning progress or whether its intended outcomes are being achieved,” Mr Hehir said.
He noted that ASIO had implemented a 2017 recommendation on reducing processing times for (TS (PV)) cases and that the backlog of cases had been significantly reduced.
The Auditor made three recommendations covering workforce planning, monitoring and reporting, which ASIO agreed.
The online audit report can be accessed at this PS News link with the Auditor-General’s 46-page report available at this link.
The audit team was Glen Ewers, Jessica Kanikula, Renee Hall, Paul Bryant and
Alex Wilkinson.
