myAIPMAddressing public inquiry recommendations - Emergency response agencies
The Audit Office of New South Wales
"The Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, released a report today examining how effectively NSW emergency response agencies address public inquiry recommendations.
The audit found that agencies’ governance arrangements to address public inquiry recommendations have important and consistent gaps.
The agencies did not sufficiently verify that they had implemented accepted recommendations as intended, and in line with the outcomes sought. This creates a risk that issues with disaster prevention or responses highlighted by public inquiries are not addressed in a complete or timely way and may persist or recur in the future.
The audit also found that agencies did not always nominate milestone dates or priority rankings for accepted recommendations, and so could not demonstrate they were managing or monitoring them effectively.
The audit examined how five emergency response agencies – Fire and Rescue NSW, National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW State Emergency Service and Resilience NSW – have addressed accepted recommendations from public inquiries over the last ten years. The audit assessed the effectiveness of governance arrangements to track recommendation implementation.
The report makes six recommendations to improve disaster response agency arrangements to address public inquiry recommendations.
While the focus of this audit was agencies that responded to natural disasters, the findings and recommendations from this report have the potential to be applied across the NSW public sector in response to public inquiries related to other areas of government activity."
Recommendations
"By September 2021, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services), Fire and Rescue NSW, Resilience NSW, NSW Rural Fire Service and the NSW State Emergency Service should:
1. establish an approach to tracking the implementation of accepted recommendations from public inquiries, with the following requirements at a minimum:
a) a Senior Executive is accountable for the approach
b) a Senior Executive action officer is accountable for implementation of accepted recommendations
c) early assessment is undertaken to determine the appropriate processes and structures that should apply to addressing each accepted recommendation
d) priority, risk and completion dates are nominated for each action to address public inquiry accepted recommendations
e) changes to priority, risk and completion dates are counter-signed by the Senior Executive responsible for the approach
f) the Senior Executive responsible for the approach collects updates from action officers quarterly
g) there is regular reporting to an appropriate Senior Executive management group that highlights at-risk items
2. formally acquit accepted recommendations from public inquiries based on evidence, including an assessment of whether the action taken has met the intent of the commitment to the accepted recommendation, and whether ongoing monitoring is required to embed changes made
3. publish consolidated, summary information at least every 12 months on progress made to implement accepted recommendations from public inquiries including:
a) action nominated to address accepted public inquiry recommendations
b) expected completion date for action to address accepted public inquiry recommendations
c) status of action to address accepted public inquiry recommendations (e.g. on track, delayed, implemented or not implemented)
d) any changes made to actions and/or expected completion dates, and reasons for these.
By December 2021, Resilience NSW should:
4. establish and commence operating the central accountability mechanism recommended by the NSW Bushfire Inquiry
5. coordinate with all agencies affected by public inquiries focused on disaster response and recovery to participate in the central accountability mechanism recommended by the NSW Bushfire Inquiry.
On an ongoing basis, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services), Fire and Rescue NSW, Resilience NSW, NSW Rural Fire Service and the NSW State Emergency Service should:
6. brief their Audit and Risk Committee on the risk implications of public inquiry findings, accepted recommendations and proposed actions to address recommendations for the agency."
Read the full report
Addressing public inquiry recommendations - Emergency response agencies, The Audit Office of New South Wales, 2021