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Publications ~ Statement of Intent
for the year ending 30 June 2005

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.

Interaction between the central agencies

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.

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 high-performing State sector by promoting the development of senior managers and effective public-management systems in the public service.

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 below shows DPMC’s areas of responsibility.

Shared outcomes of central agencies

Work continues on developing arrangements between DPMC, Treasury and the State Services Commission that will advance the process of managing for outcomes. It is now clear that the primary common purpose of the three central agencies is to create a public management system that facilitates a high-performing state sector. This involves three overlapping areas of interest:

• facilitating the co-ordination and adequate supply of resources for government strategies and priorities
  
• enhancing the ability of chief executives to “drive” government policy direction within their organisations
  
• enabling state-sector agencies to deliver improved social, economic and environmental outcomes.

 

Each central agency has a key responsibility for one of these areas of interest but also requires contributions from the other two agencies. Treasury and SSC have developed joint protocols for working together with departments. DPMC co-ordinates the agenda of the Officials’ Policy Committee, which helps provide a more whole-of-government approach on issues by removing obstacles to collaboration between state-sector agencies. Senior managers at the three central agencies have formed a State Sector Performance Group to provide greater collaborative direction for all three agencies.

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 Outcomes

The overall outcome that DPMC works to achieve is:

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. Some available indicators are:

• Systems of public management that 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 29 participating countries in The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2003 for “transparency of government policy”. (Note that The World Competitiveness Yearbook now ranks countries/economies in two groups, based on population size: the first group of 30 countries covers those with a population greater than 20 million, whereas the second group of 29 includes New Zealand and other smaller countries. New Zealand’s transparency ranking has changed little from the previous year because most of the highest ranking countries for this measure are in the second group of smaller countries.)
  
  
• The New Zealand public service is among the most honest in the world and was ranked third equal out of 133 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2003. While it has moved down one place in the rankings, the public service received the same overall score as in 2002. New Zealand was ranked second out of 29 participating countries in The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2003 for “independence from political interference”. This is the same ranking as for 2002. New Zealand also rated third out of 29 countries for “bribery and corruption do not exist in the economy” in The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2003.
  
  
• 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 is now 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 United Nation's Human Development Report 2003, 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 20 out of the 175 countries evaluated. This is a similar result to that recorded in last year’s Statement of Intent.
  
  

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.