Public Consultation Toolkit - Civil Service College

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Public Consultation Toolkit 47 48 Public Consultation Toolkit The three stages of closing the loop and a suggested timeline are shown in the table below (Table 7-1): There are three stages in closing the loop which should be followed:- Stage What to incorporate Purpose Timeline 3. Publication Announce published report to other interested stakeholders or the general public. Acknowledgement • Recognition for feedback provided • Expected timeline for processing feedback • To demonstrate that the agency recognises and appreciates the contributions Within one working day 2. Explanation Develop a report of participants’ feedback and the respective response by the agency. Share the report with the participants. Explanation • Details of consultation (date, duration, purpose) • Feedback provided by participants/ stakeholders • Approach for considering feedback • Reasons for incorporating/ not incorporating feedback • Outcome of consultation Note: Reports can be customised for different stakeholder groups, depending on the extent and nature of involvement • To close the loop with stakeholders who took effort and time to provide feedback • To explain to these participants how the feedback was processed, and reasons for incorporating/not incorporating the feedback • To provide assurance that the policy or initiative was developed with input from these stakeholders Varies depending on complexity of issue and agency’s decision making timeline 1. Acknowledgement Generic, automated response to acknowledge individual feedback received. Publication • Details of consultation • Summary of feedback provided • Outcome of consultation • To increase the public’s awareness of the initiative, and inform them about the issues and concerns raised, and how they were addressed Varies depending on complexity of issue and agency’s implementation timeline Table 7-1: Three stages of closing the loop
Public Consultation Toolkit 49 50 Public Consultation Toolkit Case 13: Registration framework for public accountants Agency/country: • Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Singapore Background: • ACRA launched a consultation exercise in July 2007 to seek views on whether the registration framework for public accountants was sufficiently relevant and robust. Consultation Process: • ACRA engaged the profession and the business community by publishing the consultation report 2007 and the final report 2008 at ACRA’s annual Public Accountants Conference (PAC). The PAC was well attended by public accountants and representatives from the business community, with an average attendance of 500-700 persons. The PAC was therefore an effective channel for the consultation exercise. • ACRA pro-actively consulted the various stakeholders through focus group discussions, “consultation clinics”, written submissions and print media. The focus group sessions were useful, particularly for a number of the audit firms whose “peak season” occurred during the ACRA consultation period. Feedback was received from a number of firms that would not otherwise have provided their feedback during the consultation, as they were not able to devote their staff to prepare the written feedback (in one example, it was felt that having 10 partners (senior management in audit firms) spend 2 hours to provide feedback to the ACRA team was more cost effective to the firm, compared to a few man days writing and vetting the feedback. • The stakeholders included public accounting entities (the big four firms), professional bodies (e.g., ACCA, CPA Australia), academics and general public. • The public consultation exercise took place over two months. • Closing the loop via ACRA’s annual Public Accountants Conference. • In 2008, ACRA closed the loop via a presentation to round up its consultation exercises. Outcomes: • The final report of the consultation outcomes were also posted on the ACRA website at http://www.acra.gov.sg/News_and_Events/Public+Accountants+Conference+2008.htm • Quality feedback and validation of ACRA’s Statements of policy intent and regulatory strategy: Stakeholders provided valuable feedback which supported and validated many of ACRA’s observations and proposals. At the ACRA conference which was well attended by the majority of the public accounting firms registered with ACRA, the ACRA representative also addressed feedback which did not translate into eventual policy decisions, or where the original proposal put forth for consultation was modified after due consideration of feedback. • Timely action resulting in good reputation of ACRA as a responsive government agency: The participants were pleased to note that ACRA did a prompt follow-through on the issue of the then “talent crunch” faced by the accounting profession, by committing to a review of the list of recognised qualifications for registering public accountants. Learning points: • Given the segmented nature of the public accountancy profession, the consultation enabled ACRA to better understand the diverse concerns of different stakeholder groups. The strategy to extensively reach out and engage different stakeholder groups ensured comprehensive coverage of the profession’s interest. • ACRA closed the loop effectively with participants and stakeholders through: (a) A well-documented report of the consultation exercise. The consultation report is available on the ACRA website at: http://www.acra.gov. sg/NR/rdonlyres/4C5D29D8-A7BC-4216-B951-18D47EAF0789/9845/ TheRegistrationFrameworkforPublicAccountantsPathto.pdf (b) Arranging for the final report (post consultation) to be presented to the consulted parties, at an annual ACRA conference. In so doing, the consulted parties received the benefit of a face-to-face presentation, as well as the opportunities to clarify any remaining questions which they had on the policies being consulted. (c) Posting the presentation slides (outlining the outcome of the consultation exercise) on ACRA’s website. In so doing, the information contained in the “closing the loop” phase of the consultation process is “preserved” for future reference. It also helped ACRA maintain its reputation for being a transparent and responsive regulator.
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