OUR ENVIRONMENT
Our Role Our Clients And Stakeholders Our Organisation
OUR SERVICES
Information Provision Information Collection Advisory Services Professional Activities Support Services
OUR COMMITMENT TO PROVIDING SERVICES ONLINE
Online Service Delivery And Our Key Result Areas
OUR ONLINE SERVICES
Current Services Online
OUR INITIATIVES TO FURTHER IMPROVE ONLINE SERVICE DELIVERY
Our Agreed Initiatives Opportunities To Improve Our Online Service Delivery
BARRIERS AND RISKS TO ONLINE SERVICES
OUR STRATEGIES TO ENSURE THAT WE MEET AGREED STANDARDS
EVALUATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
FOREWORD The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) recognises the value of online service delivery. We have used the Internet and the online environment as a mechanism for providing our services. For example, we were one of the first Commonwealth agencies to have an online presence. Our first web site was placed on the World Wide Web in November 1995. This Online Strategy and Action Plan sets the direction for online provision of services by the ANAO. Our corporate vision of "recognised excellence in public sector audit services" is its foundation. It reinforces, supports and is aligned with our Corporate and Business Plans and other key planning documents, including our IT Strategic Plan, Risk Management Plan and Fraud Control Plan. Our online approach is consistent with our aim to add value to public sector performance and accountability. It enables us to meet the needs and expectations of the Parliament, the Executive and Commonwealth public sector agencies, statutory bodies and the community. In the past year we have built on our considerable achievements with a comprehensive review of our online services. We are strengthening our online presence through an enhanced web site, which provides improved functionality and additional content. We have commenced a number of initiatives to further improve our online services including better communications with our audit clients and our enhanced web site. We are also considering several suggestions for improvements received during the preparation of this Online Strategy and Action Plan. Our Online Strategy and Action Plan is based on consultations, a comprehensive review of our online services, and an inventory of our services, transactions and external links.
OUR ENVIRONMENT Our Role
The Auditor-General is an independent officer of the Parliament whose functions, mandate and powers are set out in the Auditor-General Act 1997. As the external auditor of the Commonwealth public sector, the Auditor-General, is responsible for auditing the activities of all Commonwealth public sector entities. The Auditor-General has a central role in the accountability framework of the Australian system of federal government. The ANAO assists the Auditor-General to meet obligations to the Parliament and the Australian community. We deliver an integrated range of high quality public sector audit and audit related products and services. We provide an independent view of the performance and financial management of public sector agencies and bodies. We are valued for our independence, objectivity and knowledge and understanding of the public sector and governance matters. Our Clients And Stakeholders
Our principal client is the Parliament. The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA) is our main point of contact within the Parliament. Our audit clients include some 300 Commonwealth agencies, authorities, companies and subsidiaries. These include Budget dependent agencies involved in the delivery of core services and commercially oriented entities such as Government Business Entities (GBEs). Our other key stakeholders include the Executive and the Australian community. Our Organisation
The ANAO comprises two Services Groups which concentrate on the delivery of its two core products, financial statement audits and performance audits and an R&D Branch. A corporate area supports the delivery of these products through the provision of advice and services on a range of corporate matters We employ approximately 270 people. We are located primarily in Canberra with a small Sydney office. The Executive and Corporate functions are located in Canberra. OUR SERVICES The ANAO's Outcome-Output Framework shows the outputs (or products and services) we produce and the links between those outputs and desired outcomes:
Information Provision
Our principal output is the provision of audit and audit related information to achieve our outcomes and meet our other responsibilities to the Parliament, Government, audit clients and the community. We produce an integrated range of audit reports and related products and services. Our main products are financial statement and performance audits, audits of financial control and administration, assurance control and assessment audits and better practice guides. We also conduct seminars for our clients, provide briefings for Parliamentary Committees and individual Parliamentarians, make speeches and other presentations and prepare research papers. Information Collection
To enable us to meet our obligations under the Auditor-General Act 1997, we are required to obtain information from our audit clients and other stakeholders. We also require information for our benchmarking work, better practice guides and research. Advisory Services
In addition to making recommendations in our audit reports, we issue a range of better practice guides to assist public sector agencies improve their performance. Professional Activities
We contribute, both in Australia and internationally, to the development of auditing standards, professional practices and exchanges of audit experiences. Support Services
We also provide corporate services that support the Auditor-General and the ANAO in delivering these products. OUR COMMITMENT TO PROVIDING SERVICES ONLINE We are fully committed to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery by providing all appropriate services online by 2001. The ANAO's Online Strategy and Action Plan is aligned with our existing corporate planning and reporting framework. Our online strategies are underpinned by our vision of "recognised excellence in public sector audit services". We recognise that the successful implementation and monitoring of our online strategies has important implications for the future delivery of services by the ANAO. In recognition of this, our online strategies are implemented through the IT Strategic Reference Group. This Group is assisted with advice from the IT Operational Group. All online projects have a nominated owner and are scoped and planned using an agreed business case methodology. All projects are managed according to accepted ANAO business practice.
We aim to ensure that our online services: · are accessible; · add value; · are cost-effective; · supplement, rather than replace, traditional service delivery; · minimise and manage risk; · have appropriate controls for security, privacy and integrity; and, · meet agreed whole-of-government standards and guidelines. As other Commonwealth agencies increasingly rely on online service delivery, we recognise that we will need to continually change and adapt the way in which we conduct our business. Online Service Delivery And Our Key Result Areas
The ANAO assesses, monitors and measures its performance including online service delivery against four Key Result Areas ("KRAs"): · KRA 1 - Meeting clients' needs · KRA 2 - Quality products and services · KRA 3 - Highly performing people · KRA 4 - Good business management The links between our outputs (products and services), online activities and our KRAs are summarised below:
Following a major review of our current web site undertaken in late 1999, we have redesigned it to improve online information delivery. Our enhanced web site retains the following features from our previous web site: What's New recently added guides, reports, speeches About Us corporate plan, structure, affiliations, people Publications audit reports, better practice guides, handbooks Speeches speeches by the Auditor-General and ANAO staff Vacancies career opportunities/conditions Graduates details of graduate recruitment Tenders released tenders Seminars upcoming seminars Links hotlinks to related and other useful web sites Contact Us address, phone, fax and e-mail details We have added the following new features: · Full text search functionality to allow ANAO web site searching; · Categorised views by agency, by theme, by title, by year/number that enhances navigation to publications; · Registration lists that allow web users to receive automatic notifications of new publications or any new updates that are made to the site; · Affiliations with professional and international bodies; and, · Privacy Statement. We also implemented a document structure that allows the attachment of all file types and automatic nightly archiving to enable the effective management of the web site. OUR INITIATIVES TO FURTHER IMPROVE ONLINE SERVICE DELIVERY
Our Agreed Initiatives
During the coming six months we will be commencing (and, in some cases, also completing) a number of projects which will directly or indirectly improve our delivery of online services by:
During the development of our Action Plan, several opportunities for improvements to our online service delivery were identified. As part of our continuous improvement and evaluation processes, these will be considered during the first six months of this Plan. Where appropriate and feasible, they will be added to our current online service delivery projects and/or integrated into our web site. The opportunities and the expected results include:
This page was last modified 23/07/2002 04:10:25 PM