Management and accountabilityManagement of human resourcesThe Archives has introduced a number of initiatives to enhance the effective management of staff so that the Archives’ objectives can be met. A key strategy involves working towards achieving the Investors in People accreditation. During 2000–01, access to an Australia-wide staff-training database has been arranged and significant progress made towards finalisation of a comprehensive Induction Package for new employees. Work also continues on the development of a leadership strategy. During the year, $307 837 was spent on fees for staff to attend external staff-training and development courses, seminars and conferences. In 2000–01, the National Archives paid the equivalent of 367.99 full-time staff. At 30 June 2001, staff employed numbered 399 and included 296 ongoing full-time, 24 ongoing part-time and 79 non-ongoing staff. The Archives Certified Agreement applies to 385 staff. Fourteen staff, including eleven non-Senior Executive Service (SES) officers, are covered by comprehensive Australian Workplace Agreements. The salary ranges available to staff as at 30 June 2001 are shown in table 1.
A number of staff received performance bonuses during 2000–01.
As an employer the National Archives is cognisant of the needs of employees from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and is developing strategies to ensure that these employees have the opportunity to achieve their potential and participate fully in the workplace. The National Archives has an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Policy in place, in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Act 1991. All Archives offices have set up committees to deal with OH&S matters. During 2000–01, the Archives responded to a Planned Investigation Program carried out by Comcare in the previous year. An action plan was developed and approved and work has been underway to address the recommendations made by Comcare. There was one incident reported to Comcare under section 68 of the Occupational Health and Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Act 1991 during 2000–01.
Corporate governanceThe National Archives is a budget-funded Executive Agency of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The Archives was established as an Executive Agency by Order of the Governor-General under section 65 of the Public Service Act 1999 with effect from 28 February 2001. The Minister for the Arts and the Centenary of Federation has portfolio responsibility for the Archives. The Archives has offices in Canberra, all State capitals and Darwin. A list of addresses and contacts is at Appendix A. The Head of the Executive Agency is the Director-General, a position created under the Governor-General’s Order to establish the National Archives of Australia as an Executive Agency in February 2001. The Director-General and four Assistant Directors-General, each responsible for a branch of the Archives, form the Executive, which is responsible for the overall management of the organisation. The members of the Executive at 30 June 2001 were:
Mr George Nichols retired as Director-General in November 2000 and Ms Schwirtlich has been acting Director-General pending the appointment of a permanent replacement.
A Director heads each office of the Archives outside Canberra and has responsibility for the effective management of the Archives and the implementation of national work programs at the State level. An organisational chart for the National Archives, current at 30 June 2001, follows at figure 3.
The National Archives of Australia Advisory Council is established under the Archives Act to furnish advice to the Minister and the Director-General. The Annual Report of the Council is included in this publication. Within a planning and reporting framework each section and office prepares annual work plans and makes quarterly and half yearly reports to the Executive against performance measures. From these reports flows the outcomes and outputs reporting for the Annual Report. National Archives of Australia Audit CommitteeIn 2000, the National Archives established an Audit Committee. The Committee’s objectives are to enhance the Archives’ control framework, improve the objectivity and reliability of externally published financial information, and assist the Archives to comply with all legislative and other obligations. The Audit Committee consists of:
The observers from ANAO and KPMG participate fully in discussions. The Committee is responsible for overseeing and reviewing arrangements for controls and operations generally, and for recommending and proposing action. To exercise this responsibility, the Committee:
The Committee meets three times per year. In 2000–01, the Committee met on 23 August 2000, 8 December 2000 and 20 April 2001. Internal audit and risk managementInternal audit functions, including risk assessment, are provided by KPMG, which is contracted to provide such functions. In March 2001, the Archives submitted its Risk Management Plan to Comcover, and in April 2001, the acting Director-General signed the Archives’ Risk Management Policy. The Archives deals with manageable risk by adopting procedures as outlined in its Risk Management Plan, which incorporates the Disaster Preparedness Plans, Fraud Control Plan, Emergency Response Plan and Business Recovery Plans. In 2001–02, the Archives is reviewing, coordinating and integrating the component plans. The Archives has transferred non-manageable risk to insurance providers Comcover and Comcare. Senior staff exercise risk management as appropriate. Financial performanceThe Archives had an operating deficit of $5.8 million in 2000–01 before the capital use charge payment or an operating deficit of $14 million after the capital use charge payment. The deficit included a depreciation expense of the collection of $15 million for the first year of its recognition. The Archives did not receive funding for the depreciation of the collection. Apart from the operating deficit of $14 million due to the depreciation of the collection, the Archives had a healthy financial position as at 30 June 2001. Its financial assets were $1.3 million greater than its total liabilities. A table showing the total resources for Outcome 1 is at Appendix B. Payment of accountsDuring 2000–01, the number of accounts for payment processed by the Archives was 11 011. Arrangements were made for these accounts to be paid by the due date. PurchasingThe Archives complies with the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines in its purchasing practices. It endeavours to achieve value for money through open and effective competition by seeking multiple written quotes for all purchases over $2 000. All purchases over $2 000 are reported by gazettal. During 2000–01, 761 purchases over $2 000 were gazetted. Of these, 247 were gazetted more than six weeks after the date of purchase. Over 70 per cent of payments were made by electronic means in 2000–01. The Archives is currently training staff and developing in-house systems to enable e-procurement by the target date of 31 December 2001. In 2000–01, the Archives engaged 82 consultants, while a further eleven engaged in previous years were still under contract. The Archives also engaged three advertising and market research agencies. Details of consultancies are at Appendix C. The Archives continues to investigate opportunities for the contracting out of services where it is cost effective to do so and consistent with the Archives’ strategies. The Archives has benchmarked the finance function using the ANAO report no. 25, ‘Benchmarking the Finance Function’. The market testing is based on the ‘full costing framework’ where all direct and indirect costs are identified and allocated. The Archives will continue to market test services as further benchmarking data becomes available. Discretionary grantsThe Archives made no discretionary grants during the year. Assets managementDuring 2000–01, the Archives’ management of its property portfolio was enhanced by two major initiatives. A Building Management Strategy for benchmarking the buildings’ condition has been implemented, with three Archives facilities benchmarked as at 30 June 2001. A strategic lifecycle plan has been implemented, with Asset Renewal Plans being developed to determine the expected life span of building components, and their replacement cost. The Archives continues to actively pursue reductions in energy consumption through energy usage monitoring and benchmarking. Further details are at page 66. Internal and external scrutinyReports from the ANAOAn Interim Audit was conducted during the preparation of the Archives’ Financial Statements 2000–01 Audit. A number of issues were addressed at the Interim Audit stage:
Merit Protection and Review AgencyThere were no grievances referred to the Merit Protection and Review Agency in 2000–01. Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC)There were no appeals to the AIRC in 2000–01. Parliamentary Committees and other inquiriesOn 11 July 2000, the then Director-General, Mr George Nichols, gave evidence at the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee’s inquiry into the Stolen Generation. On 17 July 2000, the Director-General gave evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). The Joint Committee conducted an inquiry into ASIO’s public reporting, and questioned Mr Nichols about the National Archives’ submission. The Archives provided advice to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration on aspects of the review of the whole of government information technology (IT) outsourcing initiative. Freedom of Information (FOI)The Archives received one application for information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) during the year and provided the requested information within thirty days. The Archives continued to provide agencies with Information Access Office facilities in all its offices, in accordance with section 28 of the FOI Act. The facilities include making available section 9 statements completed by agencies. The Archives FOI section 8 statement is at Appendix D. Privacy CommissionerThere were no complaints to, or reports or determinations by, the Privacy Commissioner about Archives activities during 2000–01. Commonwealth OmbudsmanOne complaint was referred to the Commonwealth Ombudsman in 2000–01. The issue was satisfactorily resolved with no remedial action required by the National Archives. Social justiceThe National Archives’ social justice objectives are to ensure that its services and collections are available to all and that its exhibitions and publications assist in deepening understanding of social justice issues. Work continued on the Bringing Them Home Indexing Project, which forms part of the Commonwealth’s response to the Bringing Them Home report. It aims to help separated Indigenous people reunite with their families and communities. The allocation of $1.5 million to date has seen teams of indexers placed in Darwin, Canberra and Melbourne. By 30 June 2001, the Project had indexed 17 023 record items, identified 225 449 named individuals, and entered 180 360 of these onto a searchable database. The Archives’ exhibition Between Two Worlds: The Commonwealth Government and the Removal of Aboriginal Children of Part-descent in the Northern Territory was shown in Canberra from May to October 2000, and in Darwin from February to June 2001. An education program and a teachers’ kit, Between Two Worlds, was developed by the Archives to communicate the historical, cultural and personal impact of the Commonwealth Government’s removal of Aboriginal children of part-descent, focusing on the theme of reconciliation. The program leads students to investigate different aspects of the Between Two Worlds exhibition. Many schools from Canberra and Darwin participated in this education program during the year. The destruction freeze on National Archives records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, put into place by the National Archives in May 1996, was extended in September 2000. The freeze was extended to cover both policy and operational records of selected Commonwealth agencies that might be of use to Indigenous people trying to re-establish family and community links with those from whom they were separated as a result of government policies. The freeze is one of the Archives’ responses to the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the 1997 Bringing Them Home report of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The Archives has consultative arrangements formalised with memoranda of understanding with Aboriginal organisations in the Northern Territory and Victoria to facilitate access and assist family reunion. The Victorian Aboriginal Advisory Group met three times during the year – on 31 August 2000, 8 December 2000 and 13 February 2001. The Northern Territory Aboriginal Advisory Group met twice during the year – on 25 July 2000 and 9 May 2001. It also met informally on 2 February 2001. In April 2001, the Archives introduced a digitisation-on-demand service. This service is of particular value to people in rural and regional areas as it enables researchers to request the loading of digital copies of records held by the Archives in Canberra to the Archives website. There is no charge for this service and the Archives aims to load the copy within thirty days. This service replicates the reading-room experience and means that distance and cost need not impede access to records in the collection. The service will be extended to records held outside Canberra in 2001–02. External relations
The National Archives provides leadership and support to the professional archives community in Australia and internationally, particularly in the Pacific region, principally through assistance with training and advice. The Director-General meets twice yearly with the State and Territory Archivists through the Council of Federal, State and Territory Archives (COFSTA). The Archives provides secretariat support for the Council. The National Archives is also involved in the international archives community through membership of the International Council on Archives (ICA). Several senior staff attended the ICA International Congress on Archives in Seville, Spain, in September 2000. The Archives is an active member of three ICA committees: the Committee on Current Records in an Electronic Environment, the Buildings and Equipment Committee, and the Committee on Descriptive Standards. An Archives staff member is the Treasurer of the Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (PARBICA). Staff representation on national committees and other bodies is listed at Appendix E. The National Archives hosted a seminar on archival legislation on 13 February 2001 to discuss matters involving the drafting and implementation of archival legislation. The seminar was attended by:
Official visitors to the Archives from overseas in 2000–01 included the following:
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