The Local Government Association of South Australian (LGASA) in collaboration with Standards Australia has developed new governance guidelines for the State’s 68 Councils. The guidelines were approved at the LGA’s Annual General Meeting in October and represent an Australian first. The AGM endorsed three draft handbooks, which deal with auditing processes and broader governance issues.
CEO of Standards Australia, John Tucker, said the development of the Local Government Governance Handbooks is an important step forward that will provide an added layer of assurance for the community and ratepayers in South Australia.
“This is an important partnership that will see consistent financial reporting and governance across all of South Australia’s local Councils,” he said. “It will also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. These handbooks complement Standards Australia’s existing series of governance and management standards that have been widely accepted by industry and government.”
The proposed new guidelines deal with:
- internal and external auditing practices
- good governance principals such as accountability, values, leadership, and transparency
- governance frameworks dealing with roles and responsibilities, disclosure and monitoring
- policies, procedures and practices including dealing with complaints, record keeping, training and internal reporting.
LGASA President, Councillor John Rich, said this partnership with Standards Australia represents an exciting opportunity to further build on reforms recommended by the LGASA’s 2005 Independent Inquiry into the Financial Sustainability of Local Government.
In 2005, the inquiry reported that many South Australian Councils would become unsustainable if they did not change policy settings. It also made 62 recommendations regarding a pathway to sustainability.
“In the past, Councils have worked hard at many of these issues, but the reality is the core elements should be common across Australia and perhaps internationally,” he said. “Our objective is for South Australian Councils to be demonstrating world’s best practice, and the guidelines are a fast track to that outcome.”
Mayor Rich said the LGA and Standards Australia would be approaching other State LGAs to discuss a process to review the handbooks for national use.
For further information contact Chris Russell, LGASA’s Director Policy and Public Affairs, on (08) 8224 2030.
