Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, believes that the bureaucratic emphasis on processes belongs in the past. Cutting edge public policy making and administration needs to be geared to outcomes, and these outcomes must mirror what constituents want.
“As a large central agency, determining exactly who the customer is and what they see as important is not always easy,” she said. “Unlike the private sector we do not have a cash register that at the end of the day tells us how well or badly we are doing. Instead we use regular, rolling customer surveys. These provide feedback on how well we are doing and what people want to see changed.”
The Chief Minister said that this shift in culture, to a customer focus geared to outcomes people want, does take time. However, in the ACT the results are now starting to show.
“Through our Customer Commitment Statements and Customer Service Awards, people can see clearly that our emphasis is on achieving targets and performance standards,” Kate Carnell said.
“For staff, our vision to be ‘a clever, caring capital’, with clearly stated outcomes for a healthy, safe, diverse and contributing community; accessible cost effective services; and a dynamic sustainable economy, means everyone can relate to the purpose of the organisation. In their everyday lives people like to compete. They like to have goals and like to know they have achieved what they set out to do.”
The Chief Minister said that a vital part of customer feedback is using this information during budget preparation. “Through our introduction of accrual accounting in 1996, people can see what we are doing with their money and exactly what a service costs,” Kate Carnell said.
“At the same time, people want to see we are delivering value for money in terms of quality and timeliness. Through extensive consultation we can gauge if people are prepared to pay more for certain services.
“For example, Canberra residents have long indicated that they want to have the best education system in Australia. They therefore accept that our costs are always higher than the national average.
“Our budget decisions must reflect what people want. The old system, of a 2% across the board cut in times of financial constraint, is no longer viable.”
Working on its program of continuous improvement and performance measures, the ACT Government is aiming to deliver an operating surplus by the 2004-2005 budget.
