Corporate governance and business planning
Overall accountability for PSR rests with the Director, who has primary authority and legal responsibility for the agency. The PSR Executive Officer, Mr Bruce Topperwien, reports to the Director. He is the senior APS officer responsible for the administrative management of the agency and also fulfils the role of General Counsel.
During 2018-19, there were no significant instances of non-compliance with the finance law.
In 2018-19, PSR further reviewed its Corporate Plan and progressed the staffing of positions following its organisational restructure. The review and restructure focused on the resources and capability of the Case Management Unit.
The PSR Corporate Plan 2018–19 identifies six goals, as shown in Table 6.
The PSR Corporate Plan is publicly available on the PSR website. During 2018–19, PSR used this Corporate Plan as the basis for its performance reporting framework.
Table 6: Six goals from the Professional Services Review Corporate Plan 2018–19
|
Key Performance Indicators |
|---|
|
1 Number of s92 agreements entered into, exceed the number of cases referred to a committee |
|
2 80% of Committees will finalise their investigations within 18 months of commencing investigation |
|
3 The Director has made a decision under section 91, section 92 or section 93 within 12 months in all cases |
|
4 The Determining Authority makes a decision on 100% of s92 agreements |
|
5 In 80% of cases, the Determining Authority issues its final determination within 6 months of receiving a final report |
|
6 PSR will consult with the relevant professional bodies on behalf of the Minister in respect of every appointment |
PSR = Professional Services Review
The agency’s current structure (Figure 2) was refined in 2018–19. This structure provides for:
· a Case Management Unit, (managed by the Special Counsel), to deal with the increasing number of referrals from the Provider Benefits Integrity Division in the Department of Health and a resulting increase in the number of Committee hearings held
· an integrated Corporate Support Unit that reports to the Chief Financial Officer, and is responsible for finance, human resources, security and property management, and IT and information management
· a Business Manager, who supports the PSR Executive, and coordinates administrative support across the agency and manages communications, media and parliamentary functions
· the Executive Officer who also fulfils the role of General Counsel.
As a result of the changes to the agency’s structure, the legal capacity within the Case Management Unit was increased. The Case Management Unit at the end of 2018-19 has two Legal 2 Principal Legal Officers, two Legal 1 Senior Legal Officers and four APS 6 legal/paralegal positions.
Document preparation and management for PSR Committee hearings and for reviews conducted by the Director is provided by an administrative team comprising four APS 4 administrative officers. This team is supported by senior records management staff.
Figure 1: Professional Services Review organisational chart, 2018–19
Visit
https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/professional-services-review-scheme/reporting-year/2018-2019-22