APS staff at all levels can benefit from confidential support to talk through an integrity issue causing them concern. SES must navigate additional levels of complexity and ambiguity which at times can be isolating. Whilst some agencies have internal ethics and integrity advice available to their staff, others do not. Formal and informal support can be strengthened. Ideally, advice should come from people with a deep knowledge of the APS and governmental system, and training in integrity standards and advice. Integrity and ethics advice is also relevant to parliamentarians and their staff and may be provided by the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service.

Actions

1. The APSC to bolster and promote its ethics advisory services:
   • Ensure the APSC Ethics Advisory Service is adequately resourced and trained to provide confidential ethics and integrity advice to APS staff and entities under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).
   • Create a bespoke service within APSC that is trained and resourced at a senior level to provide confidential ethics and integrity advice to SES staff and agency heads.
   • Promote these services and monitor and evaluate their uptake.
2. Deputy Secretaries or equivalent level to access informal peer support through the Ethics and Integrity Champions network (recommendation 12).

A trusted partnership between the APS, ministers and ministerial offices is vital for effective policy and service delivery. Public servants, ministers and their staff need a clear understanding of their different and complementary roles. APS officers need to have effective communication skills to deliver solutions and evidence-based advice to ministers, and feel that the SES ‘has their back’ in the delivery of impartial (and from time to time unwelcome) news to government. Ministers and their offices need to be supported to get the most from the public service.

Actions

1. The APSC to promote key education products such as the APS Academy’s Strengthening Partnerships program to all SES and APS staff, especially Departmental Liaison Officers.
2. The APSC to develop a statement of practice which contains key expectations of the relationship between ministers’ offices and the APS. This will be circulated to APS staff working in minsters’ offices and raised with Chiefs of Staff on a regular basis.
3. The APS Academy to include the Strengthening Partnerships program in the SES induction.
4. The APS Academy to uplift the Strengthening Partnerships program for ministers and their offices on their respective roles, responsibilities and relevant legal and integrity frameworks (following the pilot in 2023).
5. Agencies to give APS staff in ministers’ offices a clear understanding of, and access to, support services available to them in the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service. Regular check-in conversations with SES can assist to surface any role clarity or integrity concerns before they become bigger issues.

A culture of legality underpins the maintenance of trust in public administration and sound governance. This is not negotiable. It includes the proper handling of public resources by the APS, and the APS role in assisting the government of the day to implement its policies lawfully. Government lawyers need appropriate support when faced with ethical issues, including escalation structures when advice is not being heeded. Clear roles and responsibilities are essential to ensuring government lawyers are able to provide independent advice.

Actions

1. Ensure timely escalation of legal risk within all APS agencies.
   • All heads of legal to have direct access to their accountable authority for escalation of legal risk.
   • Accountable authorities to make clear their expectation that significant legal risks will be brought to their attention, particularly as to the lawfulness of the activities of the agency.
2. Provide role clarity for government lawyers, to promote the independent discharge of their professional duties.
   • Each agency to ensure it has identified a head of legal who has ultimate professional responsibility (internal and external) for the legal services provided by the agency’s in-house lawyers and who serves as the internal escalation point for any legal issues.
   • AGD to reinforce the fundamental professional duties of government lawyers, particularly the duty to avoid any compromise to their integrity and professional independence, through the whole of service guidance on the role and responsibilities of lawyers.
3. AGD to develop guidance for government lawyers on how to provide clear and consistent advice on the lawfulness of policy proposals, administration of public resources and executive action.
4. Leaders to reinforce to their staff the centrality of lawfulness to all the public service does.
5. AGD and APSC to consider expanding education resources for non-lawyers about the role of legal advice in policy development.

Recordkeeping is essential for demonstrating accountability in APS decision making. It is also a basic legal requirement of being a public servant. Recordkeeping enhances transparency and ensures we are accountable for how we deal with public resources. We should increase APS understanding of why recordkeeping is essential to integrity, as well as addressing potential disincentives to recordkeeping in the Commonwealth’s freedom of information laws. We should also showcase useful existing resources such as the APS Academy’s Records Management course, which includes a list of questions to help officers decide if a record needs to be made.

Actions

1. After the conclusion of the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth’s freedom of information laws, AGD to consider if the Freedom of Information Act 1982 is contemporary, fit-for-purpose and meets its original intention.
2. The APSC to implement a coordinated, APS-wide communications strategy (in consultation with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and National Archives of Australia (NAA)) that:
   • highlights the connection between integrity and record keeping, in line with the latest NAA guidance
   • articulates support from senior leadership for best practice in record keeping
   • promotes existing training and resources to enhance capability and culture around record keeping, including for ministers’ offices.
3. Agencies to assess if their records management teams are sufficiently skilled and resourced.

Procurement processes, poor contract management and contract variations present a significant financial and reputational risk to the Commonwealth. Efforts have been made to improve procurement processes in recent years. These efforts need to be continued and expanded to contract management skills and processes – which are a vital, but often overlooked, element of the procurement lifecycle. Without this capability uplift, there is a risk contracts will not represent value for money or deliver outcomes for the Australian community.

Actions

1. The Department of Finance, in consultation with the APSC, to continue the development of practitioner-level procurement and contract management training and explore opportunities to mandate procurement and contract management training for all APS officers. This will support existing efforts to develop a Procurement Profession.
2. The Department of Finance to update the existing Australian Government Contract Management Guide to ensure it includes guidance on:
   • establishing meaningful and enforceable milestones and deliverables for supplier performance
   • monitoring and enforcing supplier performance against contract commitments, including guidance on escalation points
   • seeking appropriate legal advice when developing contract requirements beyond the Commonwealth Contracting Suite and ClauseBank to ensure that the new requirements give effect to contract enforcement
   • ensuring contract variations and extensions achieve value for money and are approved at a level commensurate with the risk, scope and nature of the contract being extended.