Output 3: Employment-related services and functions

Financial management

The Commission’s operating revenues for 2002—03 totalled $27.74 million. Revenues from Government accounted for 55.6%, sales of goods and services accounted for 43.8% and disposal of assets and bank interest accounted for the remaining 0.6%.

Table 3: Revenue sources 2000—01 to 2002—03

Revenue Source	2000—01	2001—02	2002—03
Government	57.8%	60.0%	55.6%
Sale of goods and services	40.4%	38.4%	43.8%
Other (e.g. disposal of assets and bank interest)	1.8%	1.6%	0.6%

Revenue from the sale of goods and services in 2002—03 is largely earned from training and development activities (65.6%), employment-related services (24.1%) and Public Service Gazette subscriptions (10.3%).

Revenue from training and development activities and employment-related services amounted to $10.91 million in 2002—03 and made up 39.3% of the Commission’s total revenue from all sources. This revenue is earned in an open market where agencies have choices about where they source their services and the level of services they acquire. This potentially volatile context means that the Commission must devote considerable effort to estimating revenue, expenditure and cashflows and to monitoring its financial performance during the year.

The Commission’s operating outcome for 2002—03 was $0.074 million (inclusive of Capital Use Charge). This followed a conscious decision to more actively manage the risks around revenue levels, and to maximise the Commission’s overall effectiveness rather than achieve unintended surpluses ($0.989 million at the end of 2001—02 and $0.916 million at the end of 2000—01).

Table 4: End of year surpluses 2001—02 to 2002—03

	2000—01	2001—02	2002—03
Surplus	$0.916m	$0.989m	$0.074m

In particular, this allowed the Commission to initiate work on a number of new strategic priorities during 2002—03.

Notwithstanding investment in new strategic priorities the Commission had a total accumulated surplus of $3.989 million at 30 June 2003. This result derives from increased off-budget revenues and a constrained approach to managing the uncertainty surrounding these revenues.

The Commission indicated in its 2001—02 Annual Report that consideration would in the future be given to possible uses of the accumulated surplus for investment in emerging priorities, while acknowledging that the accumulated surplus is required in part to cover employees’ accrued liabilities, for example, long service leave.

The Commission is planning to access some of its additional accumulated reserves during 2003—04, and possibly out years, to fund work on an integrated approach to leadership development in the APS and on increasing Indigenous employment in the APS. The Commission is in a position to invest in this work, while continuing to provide for its employees’ accrued liabilities, as a result of careful financial management and planning in recent years.

During the year the Commission received an unqualified audit report in respect of its financial accounts for the 2001—02 financial year.

Purchasing

The Commission undertakes its purchasing consistent with the requirements of the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines issued by the Department of Finance and Administration. The majority of the Commission’s procurement is from small to medium-sized Australian and New Zealand enterprises. (The Commission is also part of the Group 8 information technology outsourcing arrangements that are contracted with Ipex ITG, a small to medium-sized Australian firm. This contract is discussed under Information Management.)

Competitive tendering and contracting

The Commission’s contract with Synergi Travel Australia for the provision of overseas travel services expired in June 2002. The Commission is a party to the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry–Australia travel services contract which provides for both domestic and overseas travel services. This contract provides the Commission with far better value for money that it can achieve as an individual small agency with relatively low levels of travel. While the Commission now accesses both its domestic and international travel services through Qantas, it does make some modest use of other airlines.

Commission contracts include provisions that enable access to the Attorney-General.

Consultancy services

The Commission’s policy in relation to the selection and management of consultancy services is set out in detail in its Chief Executive Instructions.

The Commission engaged 126 consultants during 2002—03 (mainly for its fee-for-service training activities) and total expenditure on consultants during the year was $6,028,868.

This compares with 2001—02 when 72 consultants were engaged at a total of $5,029,777. The variation in use between years largely reflects an increase in leadership and learning and development activities during 2002—03 and some items that may have been under-reported in previous years.

A detailed list of consultants engaged by the Commission is located on the Commission website at www.apsc.gov.au/about/consultants0203.htm.

Table 5: Use of consultants

Range of consultancies	Number			Value
	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Over $100,000	12	10	12	$1,929,731	$3,398,065	$3,655,450
$10,000-99,000	26	42	58	$834,019	$1,543,380	$2,165,048
Less than $10,000	51	20	56	$165,337	$88,332	$208,370
Total	89	72	126	$2,929,087	$5,029,777	$6,028,868