Government Boards and Committees, 21 September 2012

lack of reliable and complete information to put into the database (Cabinet submissions
sometimes lack required detail, past databases are considered unreliable, and
information obtained from agencies may contain errors).
As a result, a decision was recently made to develop a new, stand-alone database to
manage data on Government boards and committees. Like AISES, the proposed system will
contain the following information for each board or committee:
brief description of function, including legislation (if any) and contact details;
date first created/paid member appointed;
active, abolished;
next review date;
expiry date;
for each member:-
name, gender (possibly ethnicity) and age band (and possibly unique identifier);
position (e.g. chair; deputy chair, member etc.);
appointment date (both first appointment and latest appointment);
appointment expiry date;
remuneration (sitting fee) rate;
details for past members (non-active) retained;
date fees were determined by PSC (or other means);
whether travel/expense reimbursement is provided;
funding source (e.g. consolidated funds, industry-funded, or self-funded);
whether Executive Council approval is needed to appoint members;
TRIM file number; and
audit information (who has edited the database and what they did).
This should allow the new system to generate reports to answer questions on the number of
Government board and committees and Paid Government board and committees at any
point in time. Data will also be available on the number created/abolished in any given time
frame and general membership profiles (including number of memberships held by any
individual). Once captured in the new database, most of this information could also be made
public.
However, the current list of boards and committees (showing name, portfolio and Minister) is
currently being updated and maintained manually by the Department of the Premier and
Cabinet.
Addressing these issues and realising the potential of the new database will require:
commitment of an additional internal administrative support to Cabinet services (estimate
a level 5 officer for 3 day per week) to update information on committees that have
appointments made each weekly Cabinet meeting and to work proactively to ensure all
data is current;
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