Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

summary of Cabinet meetings (called the Minutes) and some documents are posted on therelevant website.A fundamental imperative for improved, collaborative and structured ways of working is anelectronic record keeping and electronic document management system. Establishing suchsystems is expensive and needs to be located in a broader strategic view of the developmentof the ACTPS’s information technology requirements now and into the future.The issues involved are broader than just purchasing a workflow system and documentdatabase. They go to the fundamentals of the Government’s decision making processes, thebasis of its relationship with the citizenry, how and where the Government’s records andarchives are stored, maintained and accessed, and perhaps above all, to the way in which theACTPS talks to itself.These considerations must, however, be balanced against the need to improve electronicdocument management sooner, rather than later. Aiming too high could ultimately prove tobe counterproductive as there is inevitably newer and better technology on the horizon. Inthis context, there are many examples of effective electronic document management systemsthat are able to service and cater for wide raging needs which have already been implementedby several ACT Government Departments.The ACTPS will need to build the capacity of its workforce to implement its knowledgemanagement programs and strategies. In a rapidly changing technology environment ICTworkforce planning requires a balance between permanent employees and contract staff andactive management of which ICT functions are best undertaken "in house" and which are bestaccomplished through partnerships.Responsibility for knowledge management governance is currently shared between a numberof agencies. These responsibilities should be located at the centre of the ACTPS and theReview recommends establishment of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the proposedChief Minister’s Department. The CIO would be responsible for the strategic program forgathering, storing and sharing ACTPS data. It would be responsible for the end to endcontinuum of government information including the Territory Records Act, the FOI Act andother legislation relating to record keeping by the ACTPS, the proactive release ofgovernment material, whole of government information management and ICT governance,policy, information architecture, strategic planning, and web 2.0 technologies.The CIO would carry strategic responsibility for knowledge and the tools necessary to accessthe ACT Government and ACTPS – including the whole of government ICT strategic plan;whole of government policy on information collection, use and storage; as well as advice andguidance (including maintenance of a body of precedents) on the management of requests foraccess to information under relevant legislation.The initial deliverable would be to establish a knowledge management policy framework thatsets out the key knowledge management principles for a collaborative, responsive andGoverning the City State: 93