Delivering value

The Department is committed to identifying innovative ways in which systems, processes and policies can be improved to deliver better value to government, industry and the community.

The Department delivers value across the public sector through maintaining effective, competitive Common Use Arrangements for the whole-of-government. These Arrangements streamline the procurement process, minimise risk and ensure value-for-money.

The Department develops and manages 47 Common Use Arrangements, with an estimated turnover of $1.13 billion involving approximately 830 suppliers. This year, Government Procurement, in collaboration with agencies and industry, established the Computing and Mobile Devices Common Use Arrangement. Valued at $100 million over five years, the agreement ensures agencies can keep their computing and technology relevant in a flexible arrangement.

The Department also assists agencies to procure goods and services directly, minimising risk and maximising value-for-money. Over the last year, Government Procurement assisted with approximately 1,095 contracts involving 1,397 suppliers to a total value of $1.47 billion.

Major contracts included:

  • Facilities, utilities and support services for Rottnest Island valued at $136 million.
  • Provision of a helicopter and crew for State Emergency Services valued at $37.6 million.

Ensuring government’s buildings across the State are maintained in the most cost-effective way is an important role overseen by Building Management and Works. Building maintenance services provided statewide include the upkeep, repair or replacement of existing building components, or minor works that improve the function, safety and/or the appearance of a building. This year, staff delivered maintenance services across more than 2,500 non-residential government sites, responding to more than 120,000 breakdown repair and maintenance call-outs valued at more than $70 million. Services are delivered through a combination of public and private resources.

In its commitment to delivering value, a new low value maintenance panel was initiated this year to deliver enhanced flexibility and responsive service for government agencies, while increasing opportunities for locally based, small to medium-sized businesses. The new panel emphasises contractor performance through the inclusion of evaluation criteria assessing contractor work at the conclusion of each job.

With key performance indicators including capacity, timeliness and quality – the panel represents an improved and consistent statewide approach to the delivery of maintenance services through the modernisation of systems, processes and contracting arrangements in the Perth metropolitan and regional areas. Early evaluation indicates an average 14 per cent reduction of price per job compared to last year as a result of this initiative.

In its ongoing commitment to improving the efficiency and efficacy of Western Australia’s tax and grant administration laws, State Revenue has this year focused on improving taxpayer compliance.

In 2014-15, State Revenue facilitated the amendment of legislation to introduce interim assessment powers, which:

  • Removes the incentive for taxpayers to delay tax payments.
  • Authorises the recovery of the Commissioner’s valuation costs (and the imposition of penalties) where the value used differs significantly from the taxpayer’s designated value.

Following these amendments, further changes were introduced to clarify the way information is treated for duty purposes, and discourage the shifting of value away from dutiable property to minimise duty.

In a further display of leading cross-agency initiatives Corporate Services recognised and led an Interagency Knowledge Sharing Group aiming to share and develop smart, efficient and sustainable services in workforce planning and diversity. Established in September 2014 the group, comprising 12 agencies, has the potential to deliver efficiency savings by taking a whole-of-government approach to address diversity objectives. It is expected outcomes from the collaboration will result in shared innovative recruitment and retention strategies that target underrepresented groups in the public sector workforce.

Utility arrangements offer scope to save on operational expenses

Government has saved an estimated $13.7 million following the first full operational year of the Retail Electricity Services Common Use Arrangement. This is equivalent to a nine per cent reduction in electricity costs for government agencies.

A total of 39 agencies across 487 separate sites took up electricity supply contracts under the arrangement, including schools, hospitals and other government offices. The recently established Supply of Reticulated Gas Common Use Arrangement is valued at

$224 million over 10 years and is expected to deliver savings of up to 24 per cent against the current gas tariff. This Common Use Arrangement gives agencies the flexibility to compare tariff-based arrangements with Common Use Arrangement prices and purchase gas more efficiently at a competitive price. Though only recently released, several key agencies have already taken up the opportunities that this Common Use Arrangement provides.

The Department is promoting the use of both Common Use Arrangements under the Property Optimisation Project to reduce utility costs across the Government’s property portfolio. Jointly initiated by Government Procurement and Building Management and Works, the project assists agencies to identify and capture opportunities to save on operational expenses.