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

number, and there was a greater alignment of effort in pursuing them. The view expressed inconsultations is that implementation of the strategic framework can be likened to a doughnut– there is a hole in the middle – a gap in the explanation of “how we will deliver the strategicintent and how it all is joined together” that links the busyness of the “what” of governmentservice delivery to pursuit of the vision.In this context, a Submission to the Review noted:the gap between the Government’s high level strategic vision, actual delivery ofpolicy to deliver the strategic objectives and implementation is also evident in thelack of delivery of the energy policy – a process which was started in 2004, thereview of the Nature Conservation Act and the new No Waste Policy.Very detailed effort is put into supporting action plans and strategies articulating the “what”but the proliferation of supporting documents is clouding the ACTPS’s line of sight to thekey ones. Alignment of effort is being lost in a sea of reporting. Unifying themes are beingobscured through fragmentation of planning and delivery. The ACTPS is succeeding in thedetail, but perhaps missing the mark in its understanding and pursuit of the whole.In the Budget process, there is – properly – debate about the level of funding to be allocatedto initiatives, but often without the perspective of a shared understanding of what, at the levelbelow the strategic vision, the Government is really trying to achieve and how differentinterventions link together. There is much debate about whether budget proposals are a goodidea or not, but less about whether they are the right idea and how they fit with theGovernment’s overarching agenda.The appropriation and decision making frameworks militate against pooling resources forcross cutting programs. The frame for preparation of budget bids is the silo of theAdministrative Unit, and not the evidence based, tested and collaboratively developed policyresponse. In part this is because silos discourage discussions about whether allocation offunding in one portfolio might actually be better spent in another. Rarely does a proposalcome forward suggesting that someone else should be allocated additional resources.There was a clear view in consultations that the ACTPS has too many layers of overlydetailed planning and reporting, and suffers from a lack of alignment of effort that comesfrom agencies being overwhelmed in overlapping frameworks, plans, and strategies. ASubmission from a former ACT Public Servant noted:those of us whose priority was delivering better outcomes for the ACT communitywere finding it necessary to expend significant resources fighting internalbureaucratic battles with people who, when it came to ‘the big picture’, just didn’t getit, and were more concerned with delivering on meaningless performance indicatorsand working out how to reveal the least possible information in their annual reports.Strategy, Resource Allocation and the Vacant Middle Ground: 206