Ipswich City Council Administrators Update - Vision 2020 January 2020

4.5 REPORTING FRAMEWORK Clear, honest and regular reporting is essential to enable the mayor and councillors to know that your council is on track (or otherwise) in delivering on its strategies, services and budget commitments to the community. It is entirely reasonable for Ipswich residents and ratepayers to expect your council to have a sound reporting framework in place that ensures reports to elected representatives and also those to internal management are accurate, timely and meet the needs of council and the community in terms of transparency. BEFORE ADMINISTRATION While the former council met its basic legislative obligations in terms of reporting, reports were not presented in a reader-friendly format to enable information to be easily digested by councillors, council’s executive leadership team and the community. There was also a clear lack of a leading practice “performance culture” across council and little appreciation of the value of clear, concise reporting as a means of progressive improvement. WHAT WE DID A Transformation Project team undertook a review and consulted across council in regards to legislative requirements, the type of reporting currently being undertaken, desired reporting and best practice benchmarking. Consolidated work from this project resulted in an Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework that highlights the three horizons of plans and reports for council: Horizon 2: Corporate Strategy (e.g. council’s Corporate Plan and annual report); and Horizon 3: Operational Planning (e.g. council’s yearly operational plan and quarterly performance reports). Key performance indicators and performance measures are being finalised to assist in understanding whether targets and objectives are being met and how to champion a performance culture. Horizon 1: Community Vision (e.g. community aspirations);

The Audit and Risk Committee now in place will more effectively discharge the responsibilities and obligations under its charter to act independently and provide oversight, assurance and advice to council in relation to critical matters such as financial reporting, internal controls, governance and risk. This committee now recognises and utilises the expertise and insights of the independent members of the committee. Key information is provided to (and requested by) the committee to enable it to undertake its responsibilities effectively, improving the overall governance and management of risk for council and the community. NOW The community can expect that your council now has a robust framework for addressing risk as part of its day-to-day decision making, and an effective Audit and Risk Committee to oversee council’s approach to risk. Council staff are now expected to incorporate the risk management framework as part of their work. The incoming mayor and councillors can expect to be provided with a robust Enterprise Risk Management Framework and a contemporary and active Audit and Risk Committee to provide surety to elected representatives that the council is managing risks appropriately. SUPPORTING LINKS: Ipswich.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_ file/0008/122876/Audit-and-Risk-Management- Committee-Charter.pdf Ipswich.qld.gov.au/about_council/ corporate_publications/audit_committee

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