Designing a governance framework for a new public sector program

Designing a Probity and Governance Framework to Support Ethical Program Delivery

Grosvenor partnered with a large federal government department to design and implement a probity and governance framework for a new environmental scheme. This ensured robust performance management, compliance and risk management practices that supported audit readiness. As a result, the framework strengthened accountability and upheld public sector integrity.

Situation

A large, federal government department charged with implementing a new environmental scheme sought to put into place a governance framework. This was to support the proper, day-to-day management of the scheme.

Task

Expecting a future audit of the implementation and operation of the scheme, the department was eager to ensure its governance arrangements aligned with better practice.

The framework to be designed by Grosvenor was to provide a practical foundation for achieving the highest standards of probity and accountability. These standards were expected of the department by the public.

Approach

Grosvenor developed a practical Probity & Governance framework including guidelines that addressed three essential elements of good governance including:

• Performance – to contribute to meeting the required outcomes including the overall performance and delivery of the scheme
• Conformance – to demonstrate probity and compliance with the requirements of applicable legislation, regulations, standards and community expectations throughout the delivery of the scheme
• Risk Management – to identify probity risks, resulting from the probity risk analysis, existing controls as well as recommendations on treatment strategies that were utilised to develop and implement the scheme.

Result

The project highlighted not only the importance of effective, efficient and ethical governance arrangements. However, it also showed the difficulty and effort involved in ensuring governance and probity principles are applied when implementing and managing a new program.

The probity and governance policies and procedures were designed by Grosvenor to withstand public scrutiny and preserve the public’s confidence in the Australian Public Service’s capability and integrity. In addition, they maintained employees’ satisfaction levels.

Grosvenor’s recommended framework was fully implemented, supporting achievement of the scheme’s objectives.

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Start a conversation with Charitee Davies, Governance Lead