In July 2014 the Treasury released information relating to the set up of Central Agencies Shared Services (CASS).
EY (Ernst & Young) was engaged by the Treasury in May 2013 to complete a report on Central Agencies Shared Services (CASS) performance in its first year. The EY report "Review of lessons from CASS" and the documents cited in the report are available on this page.
About Central Agencies Shared Services (CASS)#
CASS combines resources to provide sustainable corporate services - information technology, information management, human resources and finance - to its three partner agencies - the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the State Services Commission and the Treasury. Since CASS was established in March 2012 it has made considerable progress in reducing risk, building resilience and capability and creating efficiencies across the three Central Agencies. Some highlights include:
- Cost savings of over $1 million per annum - a reduction in overall running costs across Central Agencies' corporate services of over 10% per annum.
- Overall risk reduction - substantial risk reduction across key risk areas.
- Improvement in capability and resilience of DPMC services, including ICT and payroll.
- Cross-skilled teams - the provision of more resilient support across the three Central Agencies, in particular a reduction in key person risk and a better ability to cope with peaks in demand.
As CASS moves through the establishment and transition stages of its development it is beginning to realise some transformation benefits in sharing solutions across the three Central Agencies, including ICT strategic planning, the introduction of an end-to-end e-recruitment system and finance automated workflow.
The Central Agencies are committed to the shared services model and continuing to show leadership to the public sector in the shared services space.
EY Report: "Review of Lessons from CASS"#
EY was engaged by the Treasury in May 2013 to complete a report on CASS performance during its first year. The scope of the report was to:
- evaluate the achievements (and pace of change) towards the outcomes and benefits envisaged for CASS
- identify the key factors that have contributed to the effective implementation of CASS
- identify and assess the risks to the successful future operation of CASS, including resources, skills, achievability of timeframes/milestones, stakeholder buy-in and perception of value
- identify any governance or structural changes to ensure future success
- provide recommendations that are specific to the future of CASS and that are applicable to the wider public sector.
The Treasury is releasing the EY report and the core document set that informed the report. Also released is the CASS management response to the EY report.
Further information on CASS, including the Office of the Auditor-General report on CASS, is also available on this page.
Documents#
Accessible versions
Documents are available in Adobe PDF format only. Please contact [email protected] to request HTML versions.
| Doc. Date Sort ascending | Creator | Title |
|---|---|---|
Information Withheld#
Key to sections of the Official Information Act 1982 under which information has been withheld.
Certain information in these documents has been withheld under one or more of the following sections of the Official Information Act, as applicable:
- 9(2)(a) - to protect the privacy of natural persons, including deceased people.
- 9(2)(g)(i) - maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions.
- 9(2)(j) - to enable the Crown to negotiate without disadvantage or prejudice.
In some cases information has been withheld because it is out of scope or not relevant to an Official Information Act request.
In preparing this Information Release the Treasury has considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1) of the Official Information Act.
Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) Report on CASS#
At the end of June 2014 the OAG tabled in Parliament its report Setting Up Central Agencies Shared Services (OAG website) reviewing the establishment of CASS.
The purpose of the review was to assess:
- whether CASS was set up well
- how effectively and efficiently CASS is performing (the OAG assessment is based on information gathered at the end of 2013 and earlier)
- whether it is providing a model for others to follow.
In the report the OAG identifies a number of lessons that it wants to share with other entities that are considering a shared service arrangement. It also makes four recommendations to the Central Agencies and CASS.
The report highlights a number of issues related to the set-up phase of CASS that impacted on CASS's ability to effectively deliver services when it became operational on 7 March 2012. The Central Agencies accept the main findings and recommendations in the OAG report and have undertaken actions to address them.