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

The most influential aggregation of functions – Option A which is preferred by the Review –is the creation of a deliberately large and powerful Chief Minister’s Department within thesingle ACTPS organisation, comprising three Divisions and two Directorates:• Culture and Communications Division, People and Performance Division, and PolicyDivision (reporting to the ACTPS Chief Executive);• Economic Development Directorate – headed by an Associate Director-General whowould be called Coordinator-General and continue that function which was so successfulin delivering economic stimulus measures in 2009/10; and• Finance Directorate – headed by an Associate Director-General.The Review recognises that creation of the single proposed Chief Minister’s Department withthe potential for reporting to more than one Minister is contrary to the general principle ofone Minister/one department which it espouses above. It has reached the conclusion,however, that the merits of a deliberately strong centre to the overall performance of theACTPS and the Government outweigh the potential for administrative untidiness, or risks toaccountability, entailed in a multiple Minister model.Under an alternative approach – Option B – the three Directorates would not be explicitlyjoined in a single unit under the Chief Executive and Head of the ACTPS. Under this optionthe Chief Minister’s Directorate would comprise the three Divisions listed above.Whichever option is chosen, the Review recommends the following changes:• an explicit statement should be made of the central agency role of the proposed ChiefMinister’s Department/Directorate;• consolidate responsibility for the planning and delivery of all events in the proposedChief Minister’s Department (from DHCS):• transfer responsibility for the scheduling and management of events at Exhibition Park inCanberra (EPIC) to the proposed Chief Minister’s Department; and• maintain responsibility for events at Territory venues including Stromlo Forest Park,Manuka Oval and Canberra Stadium with TAMS, but with Territory venues workingclosely with the special events unit to ensure alignment and cohesion of effort in pursuitof the Government’s Priorities;• consider greater coordination and alignment of events with Canberra Racing Club andother external entities;• transfer maintenance responsibility for arts facilities to ACT Property Group (TAMS);• consolidate Canberra Connect with the whole of government communications team (fromTAMS);• extend responsibility for access to government information by transferring the TerritoryRecords Act 2002 and Territory Records Office from TAMS and Freedom of InformationAct 1989 policy and procedural advice from JACS;Administrative Arrangements Changes: 118