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

Boards, Committees and Statutory Office HoldersOne element of a more formal approach to including the community in government decisionmaking comes through various boards and committees established by the Government. Thereare currently around 180 boards and committees supported by the ACTPS, many of whichhave a statutory basis.The governance arrangements for these bodies are not consistently in keeping withcontemporary thought in Australian jurisdictions in this area. It has been beyond the scope ofthis Review to consider individual boards and their roles, responsibilities and governancearrangements, but an examination of the roles and responsibilities of all ACT Governmentboards and committees against contemporary benchmarks should be undertaken as soon aspossible with a view to significant rationalisation.The results of the review of the Queensland Government’s 459 Boards and Committees sawrecommendations made about 263 bodies, of which 103 the Government agreed to abolish,and 81 were subjected to governance changes. 158 The Queensland Government rejectedrecommendations to abolish four bulk water infrastructure bodies, and 37 community healthcouncils. 159The OECD suggests a number of motives for establishing independent, quasi-independent, oradvisory boards and committees within public sector governance frameworks. These include:providing different control structures or management autonomy; improving efficiency andeffectiveness (especially in specialist areas); improving legitimacy and experience in decisionmaking (including by allowing “citizens or specialised professionals into the public decisionmakingprocess”) and enabling “establishment of collaborative partnerships betweenorganisations within national government and between organisations belonging to differentlevels of government”. 160While there are undoubted benefits from these structures, there are inevitable costs to thedecision making process, principal among which is “dispersion of government entities andresulting lack of readability of the institutional system”. 161Other challenges identified include:poor differentiation of the roles and responsibilities of line ministries, seniormanagement of the agencies, authorities and other government bodies, and board158 Queensland Government (2010) Government Response To The Report Brokering Balance: A Public Interest Map forQueensland Government Bodies - An Independent Review of Queensland Government Boards,Committees and Statutory Authorities Brisbane http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/government/assets/governmentresponse-to-part-b-report.pdfSee also Bligh, The Hon A. (2009a) Wide-ranging recommendations contained in Weller reviewhttp://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=63187 The Weller Report estimatedsavings of around $18 million would be generated from implementation of all of its recommendations.159 Bligh, The Hon A (2009b) Parliament of Queensland Hansard 22 April, p.36.160 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002) Distributed Public Governance: Agencies, Authorities andOther Government Bodies. Paris, p.14-15161 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002) p.24.Governing the City State: 99