Public Comment: A Restless Quest

01/08/2012

The Performance Improvement Framework: Getting it right
Public Sector, December 2012, pp. 14–15, by Shelly Biswell

As a Principal Advisor at the State Services Commission and one of the key advisers on the Performance Improvement Framework, I explained that the PIF looks back at an agency’s performance as a way of gauging how well placed it is to move forward. I described it as an integrated, deep, fast and independent review of an agency’s fitness for purpose, not an audit, a scientific evaluation, a compliance investigation or an accreditation process. I also set out how the framework had been refined as lessons were learned: we clarified who the clients of each review are, and suggestions from those clients helped us find 33 per cent in operational efficiencies across the programme. At the system level, the findings suggested the public service was responsive to ministers, good at delivering the priorities of the government of the day, and showed high levels of integrity and probity in financial management. As I put it, “Sometimes it feels like we are in a restless quest to keep improving the PIF.”

Reference
Biswell, S. (2012, December). The Performance Improvement Framework: Getting it right. Public Sector, 35(4), 14–15.

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