The City of Bunbury is the first Western Australian Council to be acknowledged in the Australian Quality Awards. The Award, for Commitment to Business Excellence, recognises Bunbury for having taken the first step towards an Australian Quality Award and its commitment to achieving excellence and creating a framework for change.
City Manager, Gary Brennan said the Award is the result of hard work by everyone in the organisation since the commitment to quality was made four years ago.
With a busy, active community making increasing demands on the services of Local Government, Council believed the best way to provide such needs was to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the organisation.
In May 1994, letters were distributed to every member of staff advising them of the intention to bring about a process of change in the organisation to increase efficiency and accountability to citizens.
“We wanted an organisation which could operate as efficiently as any private sector company subject to the rigours of market forces,” Gary Brennan said.
The nuts and bolts of that change involved the creation of a clear client provider split, the division of Council services into 15 distinct business units and the introduction of quality assurance principles to the operation of those services. Twelve of those units received quality assurance accreditation within two years of the initiation of the process.
Among the program initiatives has been the establishment of a network between Bunbury and other leading practitioners in Local Government in Australia and New Zealand.
“We invested in sending officers to all parts of Australia to talk to people who had already gone down the competition pathway,” Gary Brennan said.
Application for a Quality Award was undertaken primarily to gain an external judgement as to the effectiveness of the change program.
“I really wanted to have the City of Bunbury, as an organisation, compared with the private sector,” Gary Brennan said. “I also wanted private sector management to come and see our organisation. It is important to have additional ‘opportunities’ brought to our attention.
“We operate the organisation as a business, albeit with a strong social focus. Many areas we cover would not be provided by market forces but we nonetheless need to provide them in an efficient and business like manner.”
The outcomes at Bunbury are tangible, with significant capital savings in waste management passed on to residents in the form of decreased collection charges and other efficiencies placing the City in a better position to finance major infrastructure needs. Customer surveys conducted twice a year asking residents their requirements and levels of satisfaction, have ranked the new regime highly.
For further information contact David Price, Manager Business Quality Development, telephone (08) 9780 8270.
