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Publications ~ Statement of Intent 2003-2006

OUTCOMES

 

DPMC’s overall outcome is to contribute to the achievement of “good government, with effective public service support.”

Setting and Measuring Outcomes

Many other government departments advise and support Ministers in particular areas of government business. The central agencies – Treasury, the State Services Commission and DPMC – have a special joint responsibility to exert effective leadership across the State sector. They promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the public service so that it can collectively carry out the business of government.

Agreed Outcomes

There is increasing emphasis on setting and evaluating outcomes, as outcomes are the impacts on the community of government outputs. Frequently this involves taking a whole-of-government approach to complex issues where progress will require multi-agency and integrated interventions. As part of taking a more whole-ofgovernment approach to issues, DPMC has compared its outcomes with those of the other central agencies. There are the expected similarities and work has commenced with the Treasury and the State Services Commission to develop agreed outcome statements and strategies for improving the performance of the overall public sector.

Interaction between the central agencies

The three central agencies have differing but complementary roles in developing effective outcomes for the public service as a whole. The Treasury seeks to improve the effective and efficient use of State resources and regulatory powers and to improve decision-making and performance-management systems for the State sector. It does this through its advice to the government based on its financial and economic analysis of the performance of State agencies. Whereas, the State Services Commission focuses on producing a highperforming State sector by promoting the development of senior managers and effective public-management systems in the public service.

DPMC's Place in the Machinery of Government

The 3 Branches of government

 

DPMC services the central actors, processes and decision-making machinery of the executive
branch of government. Its key roles are:

• to provide information, advice and administrative support to the Prime Minister and to the Governor-General
  
  
• to support the decision-making machinery and formal processes of executive government
  
  
• to promote co-ordination, as DPMC supports the point in executive government where the many separate ministers, agencies and advice streams must come together to enable collective decisions and action to be taken.
  
  

DPMC’s emphasis is to support the decision-making processes of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The aim is to ensure that the elected government and its administrative agencies can design and deliver policies and services that improve the lives of citizens, within a framework of stable constitutional government.

A particular point of distinction for DPMC, in comparison with the other two central agencies, is its work in ensuring that the system of Cabinet government in New Zealand operates effectively. On all issues, its aim is to bring together whatever people, agencies and information are necessary for the operation of Cabinet’s collective decision making. DPMC works at the point of intersection where separate ministers, agencies and advice streams come together at the Cabinet table.

DPMC’s work is focused on supporting in an effective way the key roles of the government. The diagram above shows DPMC’s areas of responsibility.

DPMC's Outcomes

The overall outcome that DPMC works to achieve is therefore:

This is a high-level outcome that is shared with many others – in particular, ministers and all other parts of the public service. DPMC’s role is to ensure that the Prime Minister and the Governor-General are well supported and that the decision-making machinery works well to support ministers and departments in their areas of responsibility. This requires DPMC to work with others on individual issues to ensure ministers are provided with effective public service support.

DPMC has identified four contributing outcomes that it seeks to achieve. They are:

These contributing outcomes overlap with each other in various ways. Some business units within DPMC contribute to several different outcomes. But the ways in which DPMC “makes a difference” can be seen from separately identifying each of these outcomes and considering how DPMC works towards them. Each is discussed in detail under the relevant contributing outcome.

Overview of the current state of the overall outcome

There are no objective overall measures of “good government” – but various indicators can provide an impression of the health of New Zealand’s political and administrative systems of government. For this Statement of Intent DPMC has chosen some readily available performance indicators, embodying wherever possible an international dimension. In the coming year, DPMC intends to further develop its reporting using these types of indicators.

Some available indicators are:

• Systems of public management exhibit high levels of transparency with very clear financial reporting and governance arrangements for the agencies of government that rank among the best internationally. Openness in government is promoted through (for example) the Official Information Act requirements that the public service must meet. New Zealand is ranked seventh out of 49 participating countries in The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2002 for "transparency of government policy”.
  
  
• The New Zealand public service is among the most honest in the world and was ranked second equal out of 100 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions index 2002. It was also ranked second out of 49 participating countries in The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2002 for “independence from political interference”.
  
  
• Citizens exercise their democratic rights to participate fully in New Zealand society – one indicator of this is the consistently high levels of voluntary voter turnout for national elections (77 per cent of registered voters in 2002).
  
  
• New Zealand has ratified all 6 core United Nations (UN) human rights legal instruments (covering civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; discrimination against women; racial discrimination; rights of the child; and torture), and will by the end of this year be fully up to date with its obligations to report to the UN on the current implementation of these. Recent comments from the UN human rights committees have been very positive in their assessment of New Zealand’s human-rights performance.
  
  
• For citizens, the overall benefits of good government and public-management systems are demonstrated by the UN Human Development Report 2002, which ranks a country’s achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income. New Zealand is identified as a “High Human Development” nation and rates 19 out of the 173 countries evaluated.
  
  

Taken together, these indicators tell a story – that the New Zealand system of Government is producing worthwhile outcomes for its citizens. The key task for DPMC is to maintain and support our political and administrative systems of government. The next two sections explain the contribution of DPMC to meeting that challenge.