Annual report 2003/04

ISSN 0311-449X
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2004

Administrative services

Objective

The objective of the Administrative services program is to provide the highest quality administrative support to the board of management, the executive management team and to staff. Core activities cover office, human and financial resource management and infrastructure services, and cost-effective information technology network and desktop services.

Description

The institute's corporate plan and portfolio budget statements set out its performance expectations and planned use of resources at the broadest level.

A wide range of corporate and support services are undertaken by the Administrative services program, including:

• human resource management;
• information technology;
• financial management and reporting;
• accounts payable and receivable;
• contractual arrangements;
• asset management;
• fleet and stores management;
• freedom of information;
• occupational health and safety;
• office services;
• building services; and
• all general services.

Corporate governance

Corporate governance practices in the AIC are designed to ensure efficient, effective and ethical use of AIC resources, as well as complying with statutory and other external requirements aimed at achieving sound administrative and financial management practices.

Board of management

There were three board meetings held during the year: 10 July 2003 in Perth, 27-28 November 2003 in Canberra and 26 March 2004 in Canberra. Ian Carnell (Australian Government representative) was not able to attend the July meeting, all members attended the November meeting, and there was one apology from Richard Coates (Northern Territory representative) for the March 2004 meeting.

Audit committee

The audit committee was established in March 1999 in accordance with the provisions of section 32 of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997. The committee's primary role is to receive internal audit reports on the conduct of institute business, undertake reviews in accordance with perceived business risks as approved by the board of management, to monitor compliance with committee recommendations, and assist the director to ensure compliance with all legislative and other obligations.

The audit committee comprised all members of the board of management, and meetings were coordinated with board meetings.

The audit committee developed the 2003-04 internal audit plan with the assistance of Ascent.

Indemnity and insurance premiums for officers

The AIC, through ComCover, provides indemnity insurance for the director, members of the board of management and staff. The insurance premium for 2003-04 was $59,240.

Risk management

The AIC's risk management strategies include:

• the chief executive instructions - during 2003-04 , the chief executive instructions were rewritten to reflect government-wide better practice standards as determined by the ANAO and Department of Finance and Administration;
• a rolling internal audit plan - the plan incorporates issues raised by ANAO in it audit of AIC's financial statements, recent ANAO reports on cross-agency matters, upcoming management issues, policy evaluations, previous internal audits and strategic risk management issues; and
• annual ComCover risk surveys/assessments - the program measures AIC's performance in implementing risk management processes and policies against the national benchmark.

The AIC has a number of strategies in place to ensure risks associated with the delivery of information technology (IT) services are identified and managed. Key components are:

• IT access policy;
• acceptable use of IT resources;
• IT change to user access levels procedures;
• IT change control procedures;
• IT problem management and escalation procedures;
• IT disaster recovery plan;
• business continuity plans;
• IT security policy;
• IT services strategy; and
• internet and email acceptable use policy.

Ombudsman/court proceedings

There were no comments by the Ombudsman or court matters raised against the AIC in 2003-04.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

An application was made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2004 for review of a determination made by ComCare. A decision is pending.

Human resources

Human resources include personnel liaison services, staff development, recruitment, industrial relations, occupational health and safety and equal employment opportunity. Personnel and payroll functions are outsourced to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Operational practice has maintained a high level of activity ensuring quality services to staff of the AIC throughout the year.

There were no voluntary or involuntary redundancies during 2003-04.

Workforce planning

The executive management of the institute continually reviews its workforce requirements. Staff are employed according to the output requirements imposed by the requests for research and support activities.

Workplace diversity

The institute aims to be an organisation that values fairness, equity and diversity. Consistent with that aim, the institute is committed to preventing and eliminating discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, sexual preferences, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.

Agency agreement

The institute's third agency agreement, which was certified in August 2002, has continued to be implemented during 2003-04 without disputes. The comprehensive agreement covers non-SES staff in the institute and expires in September 2005.

Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) were in place with five staff of the institute during 2003-04.

Ethical standards and accountability

The AIC agency agreement and Australian Workplace Agreements contain a commitment from employees to uphold AIC values and comply with the code of conduct.

Performance management scheme

The AIC performance management scheme promotes fairness through clearly defining expectations and building in system controls including:

• use of structured under-performance provisions and strategies;
• use of review processes at six and 11-month cycles;
• individual training and development plans; and
• transparent appraisal outcomes for all staff.

The protocols and policies for this scheme were agreed with staff via a workplace consultative committee and were introduced during 2003-04.

Training and development

The AIC is committed to the training and development of its employees. The institute recognises that doing so will achieve meeting the institute's goals. This is reinforced through the agency agreement and the performance management scheme.

Occupational health and safety

The institute has an occupational health and safety policy and a workplace consultative committee. Both are established in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Act 1991. The committee is a joint management-employee body. The institute has nominated health and safety representatives who are members of the committee. No changes to these arrangements were necessary during 2003-04.

There were no major occupational health and safety issues during the year. The institute continued to make available to all staff and their families access to an employee assistance program.

Commonwealth disability strategy

A risk assessment of the institute's physical environment was performed to identify any requirements for persons with disabilities. It is implementing an electronic document framework to ensure that such documents are available, as required, for ease of use by persons with disabilities. Interpreter and other disability services can be made available on request.

Information and communication technology services

These services comprise the local and wide-area networks, desktop PCs and office automation services such as telephone and security monitoring systems, electronic mail, intranet and access to internet services.

During 2003-04 a document management system was implemented across the institute, which provides a more efficient and effective system to organise electronic documents.

An internal audit review of IT services was conducted through the year and made 16 recommendations covering policy and operational issues. Key recommendations covered strategic planning, network documentation, user access, IT security policy and disaster management, risk management, software licencing and change management procedures.

Detailed planning for equipment replacement was undertaken throughout 2003-04. The previous equipment refresh was carried out in 2002 and this focused on desktop needs as opposed to the wider network.

Increased emphasis on IT security was rewarded with minimal exposure to virus, spam and content concerns. Throughout the year improved virus scanning was introduced and extensive filtering deployed to minimise the effects of spam and unsolicited pornographic and other offensive material.

General services

General services include building services, security, cleaning, asset management, motor vehicles and stores management and other corporate services.

Operational practice is under continual review. An assessment of the performance of Administration and finance was conducted. An internal audit reviewed and reported on asset management and legislative compliance, specifically the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997. The IT environment was also extensively reviewed during the year and various recommendations have been implemented. Further reviews are either already in progress or scheduled for conduct in the coming year. The institute maintains a sensible strategy of risk management for a wide range of services and issues.

Advertising and market research

Table 6 sets out amounts paid by the institute on advertising and market research in 2003-04.

Table 6 : 2003-04 expenditure for advertising and market research

Vendor	Purpose	Cost ($)
HMA Blaze Pty Ltd	Advertising campaign into drink spiking	15,715
HMA Blaze Pty Ltd	Recruitment advertising for the AIC	9,147
HMA Blaze Pty Ltd	Advertise tender notices and non-campaign material	8,029
Total		32,891

Consultancy services

During 2003-04, the institute engaged in 20 consultancies valued over $10,000 at a value of $1,431,609.

Discretionary grants

The AIC administers two projects which involve the payment of discretionary grants. These projects are the Criminology Research Fund and the Australian crime and violence prevention awards. During this financial year the fund provided eight grants and awards were granted to 36 applicants.

Purchasing

Purchasing activities within the AIC were generally conducted in accordance with the Australian Government procurement guidelines. These were supplemented with internal policies and procedures for purchasing goods and services. These are included in the AIC chief executive instructions.

Asset management

The AIC manages both current and non-current assets in accordance with guidelines set out in the chief executive's instructions and the Australian accounting standards.

AIC non-current assets are subject to an annual stocktake to ensure the accuracy of asset records. An independent revaluation and stocktake of assets was undertaken by Hymans using the fair value method of valuation as per the Australian accounting standard AASA 1041 Revaluation of non-current assets.

Financial operations

The AIC operates its own network-based financial management information system, which includes general ledger, debtors and creditors, asset management and purchasing. In addition, a number of services are outsourced. The institute has adopted full accrual accounting and budgeting in response to financial management initiatives occurring in the wider Australian Government context.

Financial performance

Operating revenues for 2003-04 total $7,035,068. Revenue was received from Government ($5, 097, 000), contract research ($1,862,307) and other items ($75,761). Total revenue increased by 3.4 per cent compared with 2002-03. The main factors affecting revenue were an increase in government appropriations of $1,158,000 and a decline in other revenues of $923,776.

Operating expenditures in 2003-04 were $7,023,631 and represented an increase of 5.6 per cent compared to 2002-03.

Overall operating results indicate an operating surplus of $11,437 compared to a surplus of $149,194 in 2002-03.

Freedom of information

This statement is provided in accordance with section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982. It refers to the structure of the AIC and the categories of documents it holds, with information as to how access can be made.

Categories of documents

• general - internal papers and records, including working drafts, statistical records, copies of facsimiles, interagency and general correspondence and papers, policy documents (including recommendations and decisions) and work plans;
• executive - briefing papers and submissions prepared for the Attorney-General, ministerial correspondence and replies to Parliamentary questions;
• research - research, development and evaluation papers, records of consultations, statistical data holdings, conference proceedings and publications; and
• administration - finance, establishment, personnel, recruitment, staff development, office services and tender files.

FOI requests during 2003-04

There were no FOI requests made to the AIC in 2003-04. FOI requests can be made by writing to the Manager, Administration and Finance, Australian Institute of Criminology, GPO Box 2944, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601.

Ecologically sustainable development

This is a report on compliance with the reporting provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC). Under section 516A(3) of the EPBC Act, the director of the AIC must ensure that a report prepared under the provisions of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 complies with the reporting provisions (subsection 6) of the EPBC Act.

The AIC has adopted a range of measures as listed below in order to fulfil its obligations under the EPBC Act.

Measures include:

• active recycling of paper, plastic and bottles, and computer toner;
• installation of equipment, such as desktop computers, photocopiers, dishwashers and printers, that incorporate energy-saving functions;
• use of lighting and air conditioning management systems;
• water conservation - toilets with dual-flush systems; and
• reductions in consumable supplies through reduced printing of material available on the internet, electronic databases, email and document management systems, leading to lower consumption of paper, toners and energy.

The institute is committed to practices that assist ecologically sustainable development and improve environmental performance. The institute does not administer any legislation or have any appropriations directly related to these issues.