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Last updated: 25 October 2007
Building Better Governance
Part Three—Departmental Case Studies
Department of the Environment and Water Resources
How a large and diverse department developed an ‘activity tracker’ as a risk management and reporting tool to monitor and report on departmental issues.
The department
The Department of the Environment and Water Resources develops and implements national policy, programmes and legislation to address Australia’s environmental climate change, water resources and heritage challenges.
The department is large and diverse, employing approximately 2 200 staff in 14 divisions. The portfolio has seven entities including the Bureau of Meteorology, National Water Commission and the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator.
The challenge
The department has undergone several significant machinery of government changes over the last few years, most recently gaining responsibility for the water resources portfolio.
It is a large department covering a broad and varied range of activities and administering over 50 individual pieces of legislation. As a result, the activities and resultant risks that it manages are very diverse.
The department has a range of internal governance committees. The Senior Executive Management Meeting, held every fortnight, is attended by the Secretary, Deputy Secretaries and the heads of the Corporate Strategies Division and the Policy Coordination Division. There is a weekly senior executive roundtable meeting, which also includes heads of all divisions and portfolio agencies. Other committees include an Audit Committee, Compliance Executive, and Knowledge Management Committee.
The need for a consistent, comprehensive snapshot of activities across divisions was identified in 2005. The executive required a good strategic overview of what was going on across the department and its portfolio bodies.
The system
The Activity Tracker was introduced in early 2006 and was adapted from a similar system used in the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. Some other departments use comparable systems.
It is a quarterly report from divisions to the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries to track progress and identify emerging risks associated with key activities. The report lists key departmental activities and their current implementation status, and details priority projects, programmes and hot issues in the department.
Each division is asked to update the report template by assigning a single ‘traffic light’ rating for the overall progress/risk of each activity. Activities are assigned a traffic light according to the nature of the risk or issue. Red is high risk—serious, urgent problem; amber is medium risk—possible serious problem but not urgent; green is low risk—no problem.
(The guidance on assigning traffic lights and the Shell Reporting Document are provided at the end of this case study.)
A brief description of the status of the activity, emerging issues, sources of risk and action taken is then provided. The final item of the report indicates the management response— either that the matter is in hand and the Deputy Secretary informed, or the involvement of senior executive management or the Secretary is required.
Division heads may nominate activities or issues to be added to the list when updating the report, or may remove activities that are complete or no longer a priority. The report is then compiled by the department’s Governance Unit and provided to the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries.
Due to the sensitive nature of the material it contains, the Activity Tracker is a protected document. Only matters relating to their own division are seen by division heads.
What was done
The idea of regular reporting on strategic risks was proposed to the senior executive in 2005 by the department’s Governance Unit. The senior executive agreed to trial a report on key activities, including traffic light ratings for areas of risk in the department.
In preparing the pilot Activity Tracker report, the Governance Unit identified a list of activities for inclusion in the report in consultation with the senior executive, and then interviewed programme managers of the activities to identify progress to date; what controls were in place; and what risks the Secretary needed to know about.
Based on feedback from the senior executive, the reporting system has been modified twice since it was introduced, both in its appearance and the preparation process.
Requests to update the Activity Tracker reports are now sent to division heads in the department every quarter. The Governance Unit compiles the report, seeking clarification on the input if required, and provides the draft report to the Deputy Secretaries for their clearance/edits. The report is then provided to the Secretary and to the Senior Executive Management Meeting. This process ensures quality control and accuracy of the reports.
Monitoring
Six quarterly Activity Tracker reports have been compiled as at June 2007, the first two of which were conducted as trials. It is regarded as a work in progress and is being refined on an ongoing basis.
Benefits
The senior executive has found the Activity Tracker a very useful tool to assist it to identify problems, or potential problems, at an early stage. The simplified format that is used enables clear, consistent and concise reporting by all divisions.
Key messages
- Larger agencies covering diverse functions, especially when those functions are varied over time through machinery of government changes, may find it useful to have a device such as the Activity Tracker to ensure that the senior executive in particular have a strategic overview of issues in the department.
- This type of monitoring and reporting system can form an integral part of your overall risk management strategy.
- A key to ensuring successful implementation of the Activity Tracker is to have a robust, well-defined rating system that is easily understood.
Department of the Environment and Water Resources— additional information
Guidance on assigning traffic lights and reporting
1. Assigning traffic lights
Use the following prompts to assign traffic light ratings. Assign a single traffic light indicating overall progress toward implementing the activity, rather than one each for project plan, staffing and expenditure.
2. Reporting
Provide text explaining why there is an issue and the consequences of it, in particular actions required by the senior executive.
A red rating should provide as much information as needed to explain the rating and mitigation actions. Information can be provided as an attachment to the ‘activity tracker’ if required.
| Colour | Meaning | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| RED |
|
Attach a few lines to the report to explain the main source(s) of risk and what is being done to address them, or needs to be done by senior executive. |
| AMBER |
|
Summarise the main source(s) of risk and what is being done to address them. |
| GREEN |
|
Consider recommending that senior executive no longer needs to monitor progress. |
Shell reporting document
Download example
Activity Tracker report
# June 2007
