The Department of Finance has published its Corporate Plan for 2019-20, setting out its vision for managing resourcing, driving public sector transformation and delivering efficient, cost-effective services to and for Government for the next four years.
Introduced by the Department’s Secretary Rosemary Huxtable (pictured) the Corporate Plan commits Finance to play a leading role in ensuring that Public Service policies and programs are developed and delivered in a technologically advanced and joined-up way, and as efficiently as possible.
“As a central Agency, we need to lead by example,” Ms Huxtable said.
She said rapid advances in technology, greater access to data and on-demand information was altering how citizens and businesses interacted with and accessed Government services.
“This presents opportunities for Finance to engage more efficiently and to improve productivity,” Ms Huxtable said. “Specifically, through a deregulation lens, this means simplifying processes to allow seamless and joined-up transactions.”
“This Corporate Plan outlines Finance’s approach and priorities. Over the next four years, our focus will be on driving greater efficiency, accountability and capability.”
She said Finance had established a Centre of Procurement Excellence to enhance procurement capability and productivity across the public sector as well as a Procurement Consultative Roundtable.
“The roundtable is a biannual meeting that brings together the Secretaries of key Departments and representatives of the procurement sector and business,” Ms Huxtable said.
She said the Department continued to look for ways to streamline its own operations and realise the benefits of modern practices.
“As of 1 July, the Department successfully transitioned to receiving shared services through the Service Delivery Office (SDO). This is the culmination of a project that is significantly modernising the way we both deliver and support our business,” she said.
“This successful transition complements Finance’s role as the Department responsible for the Shared Services program and as the provider of shared services through the SDO.”
Ms Huxtable said the Department’s Productivity and Automation Centre of Excellence was leading the implementation of process automation across Government.
“Automating transactional, repetitive processes is occurring across a number of business processes in the Department, allowing staff to concentrate on higher value, more challenging work while reducing error rates and the need for manual fixes,” she said.
