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The Professional Standards Unit is also responsible for the
development, review and auditing of the Service’s Corruption
Prevention Strategy, in line with the unit’s charter, relevant policies,
Service Standards and Service values. The unit analyses, reports
and acts upon high level complaints, grievances and other sources of
intelligence relating to professional standards, ensuring an appropriate
system of professional standards investigations are implemented.
Executive Support
The Executive Support Group comprises a number of important
functions undertaken on behalf of the Commissioner. These are:
• Corporate and International Relations
• Events and Promotions
• Committees, Awards and Protocols
Corporate and International Relations
As part of the Head Office (Homebush Bay) realignment of State
Headquarters in 2009, the Business Development Unit changed
its name to Corporate and International Relations. This is a better
reflection of its role in building relationships for the NSW RFS in
Australia and abroad, as well as exploring new business opportunities.
During 2008/09 the Corporate and International Relations Unit
conducted over 50 commercial training courses throughout NSW.
These included Bush Fire Awareness and Fire Extinguisher
courses for the private and public sectors. A number of international
delegations from Korea, India and Botswana were also hosted during
this period.
Events and Promotions
The primary role of the Events and Promotions Unit is to manage the
successful execution of events, functions and ceremonies across the
State. The Unit provides the Service and its members with:
• Assistance on all aspects of event management from conception to
execution
• A central communication hub between event organisers, the
Commissioner’s Office and the Minister for Emergency Services
• Coordination of all promotional merchandise and corporate gifts,
ensuring appropriate corporate branding of NSW RFS trademarks
In the reporting year, the unit processed more than 100 events across
the State. The most common events were Station Openings, Brigade
Anniversaries and Medal and Award presentations. The unit also hosted
the Commissioner’s Internal Bravery and Service Award Ceremony.
The unit continued to administer the Commissioner’s Internal Bravery
and Service Awards, including 545 Long Service Badges, 605
Certificates and 52 Long Service Medals. It also administered the Fire
Services Joint Standing Committee Awards for Excellence and the
internal processes for the following external awards: 13 Australian
Fire Service Medals, 248 National Medals along with the internal
nomination processes for other Commonwealth and State Agency and
Emergency Services Awards.
Ministerial Liaison
The Ministerial Liaison Unit ensures the provision of high quality
written material in response to requests for information on matters
relating to the NSW RFS. The unit prepares correspondence,
Parliamentary advice and briefing material.
The main area of work during the year was Ministerial and
departmental correspondence, with a noticeable increase in the
numbers of letters received following the Victorian bush fires in early
February 2009. The demand represented an increase of around 240
percent on the number of letters responded to during the previous
12 months. Overall, the workload of the unit increased by 17 percent
during the reporting period. It is anticipated that the Royal Commission
of Inquiry into the Victorian bush fires will continue to generate further
requests for information and advice during the coming year.
The unit meets Freedom of Information (FOI) obligations on behalf of
the NSW RFS. The June and December Statement and Summary of
Affairs were both submitted on time for publication in the Government
Gazette. The number of applications received and dealt with (52)
is consistent with the volume of requests in the previous two years
and is a significant increase on previous years. The unit achieved 92
percent compliance with the statutory timeframes for determination
required by the Freedom Of Information Act. No decisions were the
subject of internal or external review, indicating a high degree of
satisfaction with the reasons given for determination.
In keeping with the spirit of the Act and the NSW RFS commitment to
transparency, 290, or around 97 percent, of the documents requested
were released in their entirety. Only nine documents were found to be
exempt from release. Most of these documents were released with
minor deletions, generally to remove personal details.
Further statistics on FOI can be seen in Appendix H.
Committees, Awards and Protocols
The Committees, Awards and Protocols Unit has continued to
provide high quality executive support to the Legislative Committees
established under the Rural Fires Act and Fire Services Joint Standing
Committee Act and to the committees established by the Minister
for Emergency Services and the NSW RFS Commissioner. The
performance targets in relation to the issue of agendas, business
papers, minutes and committee correspondence and the number of
meetings held were all met.
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