Chapter 9: Agency governance

Abbreviations

A list of the abbreviations used in this report is available in the Glossary

International initiatives

There has been growing interest internationally in issues of effective governance. A 2006 Institute of Public Administration of Canada study of journal article content found that governance related articles were the number one topic covered in international public administration journals published over the last two years.⁴

The OECD has played a role in focusing governments internationally on issues of public governance and corporate governance more generally. As part of a suite of initiatives dealing with governance, in April 2005 the OECD launched a website to enable easier research into governance and public sector developments.⁵ This was followed in September 2005 by a publication that sets out the OECD guidelines on corporate governance in state-owned enterprises.⁶ The OECD suggests that not only is sound corporate governance critical in enabling state owned enterprises to contribute to a country's economic efficiency and competitiveness, it is a prerequisite for economically effective privatisation.

Governance issues have also been examined by the OECD's Public Governance Committee at ministerial level. The committee found that effective and efficient public governance is important to ensuring economic and social development. It linked governance to issues of strengthening citizen trust and engaging with citizens, and emphasised the importance of effective risk management strategies and resource allocation.⁷

In the UK, governance reforms aimed at improving government services to the community through regulatory innovations continued during 2005-06. The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill was introduced to streamline reforms to outdated or overly complex legislation, allow for a business friendly regulatory enforcement, consolidate regulatory bodies, and reduce legislative requirements needed to implement EU directives.⁸ The Bill aims to improve the regulation of the private sector by reforming existing governance arrangements that impede efficient and effective public sector decision-making in this area. As at 19 July 2006, the Bill had completed the Committee stage in the House of Lords.

In Canada the controversy created by the AdScam election advertising scandal underpinned a host of initiatives to improve governance in the Canadian federal public service. For example, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat released a new policy on learning, training and development for public service employees at all levels with the goal of improving governance.⁹ The new Conservative Government has also introduced an Action Plan that incorporated most of the recommendations contained in Justice Gomery's inquiry into the AdScam scandal.¹⁰ The aim of the Action Plan is to create a culture of accountability, transparency and integrity within the Canadian public service and amongst public office holders. Of the initiatives that target the public service, the main focus is on procurement and financial management policies, where the core reform is a shift from the current command and control transaction level rules and regulations to a principles based approach promoting management accountability and transparency.

In NZ, the State Services Commissioner has released a publication which provides guidance to government agencies for preparing their Statements of Intent under the requirements of the revised Public Finance Act 1989.¹¹ These documents are tabled in Parliament and contain the agencies' medium-term (three to five years) operating intentions and performance expectations.

The NZ Government has also initiated a five-year plan to introduce a comprehensive set of Development Goals for public sector agencies. These goals provide the framework to improve whole of government coordination and to establish processes for future public sector reform. In July 2006, the State Services Commission released the State of the Development Goals Report 2006 that describes what the future public sector might look like after the goals are achieved, highlights examples of good practices already implemented, and provides a set of indicators for measuring agency progression toward the milestones.¹²

M. McConkey and P. Dutil, ‘The Top Ten Topics in Public Administration Scholarship: An International Perspective’, New Directions, No. 19, The Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 2006.
OECD, <http://www.oecd.org/infobycountry>
OECD, Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises: A survey of OECD Countries.
OECD Public Governance Committee at Ministerial Level, Statement by the Chairman, Rotterdam, 28 November 2005, <http://www. oecd.org>; <http://www.oecd.org/document/11/0,2340,en_2649_37405_35672075_1_1_1_37405,00.html>
UK Cabinet Office, ‘Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, 2006’ <http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/reform/bill/index.asp>
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat 2006, New Learning and Training Policy for the Canadian Public Service and its Role in Improving Governance, <http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca>; Government of Canada, Canada’s New Government: Federal Accountability Action Plan—Turning a New Leaf, <http://www.accountability.gc.ca>
Canada’s New Government: Federal Accountability Action Plan—Turning a New Leaf, <http://www.accountability.gc.ca>; Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsor Program and Advertising Activities (Gomery Review), 2005, <http://www.gomery.ca/en/index.asp>
State Services Commission, Guidance and Requirements for Departments—Preparing the Statement of Intent, 2005, <http://www.ssc.govt.nz/display/document.asp?docid=5288>
State Services Commission, State of the Development Goals Report, 2006, <http://www.ssc.govt.nz/upload/downloadable_files/sdg-report06.pdf>