The Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) has announced its Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Sector Management for 2018.
The Gold Award and the Collaboration Award went to the Queensland Police Service’s Commonwealth Games Group for the establishment of Operation Sentinel.
Judges said the Queensland Police Service engaged with experienced international practitioners, including senior planners from the London Olympics, Glasgow Commonwealth Games, and other global sporting events.
“All desired outcomes were delivered on time, with $18 million underspent and returned to Government,” the judges said.
“This nomination received a Collaboration Award for its very effective integration across multiple Agencies at all levels of Government.”
The Silver Award went to the Federal Department of Human Services for its hacking fraud controls to identify vulnerabilities.
“In the wake of a major fraud incident, the Department created an innovative and industry leading capability that evaluates the effectiveness of fraud controls,” judges said.
“This involved developing a team of trained fraud analysts…since its implementation, the team has tested the effectiveness of over 550 fraud controls across a range of Government programs and corporate functions, with more than 140 treatments implemented or in development.”
A commendation was received by the NSW Department of Education for its Resource Allocation Model for Public Schools.
Judges said the Department developed a completely new way of allocating funds with a robust and sustainable process for providing needs-based funding to support 781,000 students in 2,200 NSW public schools.
The People and Change Management Award was received by Ambulance Victoria for its Occupational Violence Prevention Program — “a three-year program including process improvement, culture change and training to address serious occupational violence issues involving paramedics”.
Judges said an occupational violence policy was developed that clearly articulated a position of zero tolerance to occupational violence against paramedics.
“This program has resulted in a 49 per cent reduction in assaults on paramedics from 2015-16 to the present even though risk exposure has increased.”
Finalists for the awards included:
The Australian Bureau of Statistics for its Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey; the Australian Taxation Office for implementing a world-leading Government community forum; the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for its implementation of an activity-based working environment to support the Indigenous Affairs Group at the Centraplaza office and the National Library of Australia for its Digital Library Infrastructure Replacement Program.
Details of all the awards and finalists can be accessed on the IPAA ACT website at this PS News link.
