Our Purpose

Working together to support the future prosperity and wellbeing of all South Australians

Our Values

• Service
• Professionalism
• Trust
• Respect
• Collaboration & Engagement
• Honesty & Integrity
• Courage & Tenacity
• Sustainability

Our functions, objectives and deliverables

DTF is the lead agency for economic, social and financial policy outcomes, where we play a vital role in providing economic and fiscal policy advice to the government of South Australia. Our people conduct research, analyse information, give advice, contribute to government policy and decision-making and support the Treasurer in producing the State Budget. Our people also provide corporate and business services in the areas of Payroll, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Financial Services so that all South Australian government departments can focus on their core business operations.

As an organisation we contribute to South Australia by providing financial services to the community, covering asset and liability management, collection of state taxes, insurance and superannuation as well as services for work health and safety and state-based industrial relations services across South Australia.

Our objectives are:

• Trust and empower our skilled, diverse, flexible and committed people.
• Promote and support responsible budget and financial management.
• Deliver timely high quality services to meet the needs of our clients.
• Collaborate to deliver high quality advice.

Accountability for Public Sector Resources

Produce and publish the consolidated Government of South Australia financial statements for 2017–18, the 2018–19 Budget, the 2018–19 MYBR and the 2019–20 Budget.

Completed. 2017-18 financial statements, 2018-19 MYBR, 2018‑19 and 2019‑20 State Budgets produced and published.

Negotiate new agreements with the Commonwealth Government for education funding and remote Indigenous housing.

Negotiated with the Commonwealth Government to agree the Small Business Regulatory Reform Agreement, the National School Reform Agreement, and new funding arrangements for remote Indigenous housing.

Assist in the negotiation of a new National Healthcare Agreement between the states and the Commonwealth Government.

Contributed to the negotiation of a new National Healthcare Agreement between the states and the Commonwealth Government.

Provide support to the independent inquiry into water pricing in South Australia.

The independent inquiry, conducted by Mr Lew Owens, formally commenced in September 2018 and concluded on 30 June 2019. During the Inquiry, Mr Owens completed five reports which are available on the Department of Treasury and Finance website. The Government will now consider the final report and how it will respond.

Assess opportunities to enhance the efficiency and quality of government services by growing private sector delivery.

Managed the transfer of the historical ‘back’ book of pre-July 2016 Third Party Compulsory Insurance Claims from the Motor Accident Commission to Berkshire Hathaway’s National Indemnity Company (completed 30 June 2019).

Manage the state’s obligation under the exclusive right to negotiate to assess the potential for private sector delivery of the state’s motor registration and driver licencing registry.

Completed a Scoping Study to assess the potential to commercialise the State’s Motor Vehicle’s Registry and related functions.

Assess and lead delivery of complex transactions working with client agencies, including through the use of innovative commercial structures and financing approaches.

Led delivery of complex reinsurance transaction with Berkshire Hathaway’s National Indemnity Company, to manage risk associated with the Motor Accident Commission pre-July 2016 claims and insurance pool.

Lead the delivery of new birth to Year 12 education facilities to be built under a public private partnership in the Munno Para region and Sellicks Beach/Aldinga region in close collaboration with the Department for Education.

Completed Expression of Interest phase and commenced Request for Proposal stage to deliver new birth to Year 12 education facilities to be built under a public private partnership in the Angle Vale region and Sellicks Beach/Aldinga region in close collaboration with the Department for Education.

Finalise the simplification of the Treasurer’s Instructions to increase agility in government decision making whilst maintaining a strong governance framework.

The Treasurer’s Instructions (Accounting Policy Statements) commenced on 22 March 2019. The Department continues to work on improvements to the general Treasurer’s Instructions.

Prepare for the commencement of major changes to the Australian Accounting Standards, including assessing the impact of the new standards at a whole of government level and determining the changes required to the Accounting Policy Statements.

The Treasurer’s Instructions (Accounting Policy Statements) established the government-wide policy for the new Accounting Standards. The State Budget 2019-20 included an assessment of the impact of the new Accounting Standards.

Assist the government to implement its new energy solution

DTF has worked closely with the Department of Energy and Mining to progress the SA-NSW electricity interconnector, grid scale storage solution and the home battery program – the key elements of the Government’s energy solution. During the year, the Agency was also involved in the competitive process to lease the emergency generators owned by the State Government.

Treasury Services

Continue to broaden SAFA’s profile and penetration with investors to enable cost-effective refinancing of existing short and long-term debt.

SAFA’s funding task for 2018-19 was reduced to $5.8 billion from $5.9 billion following the release of the MYBR, with a successful completion of that revised requirement. The funding was raised through the issue of a mixture of short and long-term debt from both the domestic and offshore financial markets.

Broaden SAFA’s management of industry financial assistance to provide an expanded due-diligence, commercial advisory and contract management service across government.

SAFA has expanded its management of industry financial assistance by providing due-diligence, commercial advisory and contract management services for the $100 million Economic and Business Growth Fund, the $150 million Regional Growth Fund and the $27.9 million Research, Commercialisation and Start-Up Fund.

Complete the vehicle management and vehicle disposal contract negotiations.

Negotiations with the preferred supplier for the provision of vehicle fleet management and vehicle disposal services were completed in June 2019. Contracts for the provision of these services were executed in August 2019.

Revenue Collection and Management

Implement legislative, administrative and system changes relating to the payroll tax reduction for small businesses from 1 January 2019.

Legislative, administrative and system changes were all implemented on or before 1 January 2019.

A client centric review of communication and educational information was undertaken to address the mid-year change in tax rates and requirements for annual tax reconciliation

Fully implement system changes to reflect a reduction to Emergency Service Levy bills by $90 million per annum.

The ESL remissions project was successfully delivered. The project also implemented changes to the ESL Notice to make payments methods easier to understand and to encourage people to sign up to electronic bills via email.

Increase electronic lodgement of taxpayer obligations and management of grant applications through RevenueSA online.

Electronic lodgement of stamp duty insurance returns has been implemented with EFT option now available.

All Job Accelerator Grant Applications lodged and managed electronically.

Increased functionality added to Payroll Tax and Stamp Duty including electronic lodgement and uploading of documentation for assessment and opinion.

De-commissioning of legacy RevNet system with all payroll tax and property certificates now managed through RevenueSA Online.

Implement an enhanced education program and deliver easier to understand taxation and grant information to improve taxpayers’ understanding of their obligations.

Website changes to improve navigation and simplify content.

485,000 website visitors viewed 1.8m webpages.

Continue to develop and deliver education programs, including webinars, educational videos and presentations to industry groups. Delivered 37 webinars (1,100 participants) and attracted 12,500 views of our educational videos.

Launch of residential property buyer tool which provides information on state revenue obligations and exemptions and/or grants available.

Three Revenue Rulings were updated. One new Revenue Ruling and one new Information Circular were introduced.

Implement further measures to modernise service delivery.

The customer service improvement program has implemented 16 short term and 17 medium term actions including:

• Simplification of a number of standard letters by using plain English and behavioural insights methodology.
• More auto attendant telephone options for customers, increased use of automated response emails and implementation of internal call monitoring to assist with staff training.
• Improved service delivery for ESL and land tax through the promotion of email billing, the acceptance of credit card payments over the telephone, self-select telephone options for payments and Valuer-General valuation enquiries, simplified ESL concession application process and automated internal call management   protocols.

Superannuation Services

Introduce new insurance products including death and total permanent disablement (TPD) and income protection (IP).

Revised arrangements introduced to better meet members’ needs (in terms of levels of cover and flexibility), realign the products to reflect industry terms and respond to analysis on the sustainability of the insurance reserves. These changes included increasing the availability of income protection insurance from age 60 to age 65 and charging age based premiums for that cover. Changes were also made to death and TPD insurance, including increasing the default amount of units, extending the eligibility from age 65 to age 70, and introducing more options for members to balance the level and cost of cover.

Introduce the early release of superannuation on compassionate and hardship grounds.

A facility to permit Triple S members and post retirement investors to access their superannuation early on financial hardship or compassionate grounds was introduced on 3 September 2018. This was a welcomed feature of the scheme and aligns Triple S with other state government superannuation schemes.

A membership exclusion for certain categories of persons earning less than $450 per month was also removed from Triple S rules.

Industrial Relations

Lead the negotiation of expiring public sector enterprise agreements.

New enterprise agreements were  finalised for Visiting Medical Specialists, Clinical Academics, the Rail Commissioner’s Infrastructure and Maintenance employees, Parliament House employees, West Beach Trust employees, Adelaide Festival Centre Trust Performing Arts and Professional and Administrative) employees and Adelaide Cemeteries Authority employees. Negotiations commenced or continued for school and preschool staff, SA Police, Assistants to Members of Parliament, Ambulance Service and Nursing and Midwifery and Building, Metal and Plumbing Trades employees.

Manage public sector dispute notifications, monetary claims and other employment-related litigation. Where appropriate, explore opportunities for the constructive resolution of disputes without the need for litigation.

Managed, on behalf of the declared employer, 53 new matters that were filed with the South Australian Employment Tribunal. The matters included monetary claims, industrial disputes, interpretation of clauses in Enterprise Agreements, additional compensation matters, and in some cases litigation in the Courts.

Continue to build industrial relations knowledge and skills across the public sector.

Continued to liaise and consult with agency representatives regarding a range of IR matters, including proposed reforms and initiatives. Also provided various written advices to Chief Executives and their IR/HR personnel to assist them to manage their IR issues.

SafeWork SA

Maintain the work injury reduction trend in South Australia.

SafeWork SA continues to undertake compliance, enforcement and education activities to contribute to the national target in the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 of a 30% reduction in the incidence rate of claims resulting in one or more weeks off work by 2022. SA is currently exceeding the targeted reduction for the period by 9%.

Provide consistent and practical services to support businesses and workers to improve work health and safety and industrial relations outcomes, including making it easier for people to engage with SafeWork SA and taking firm and fair action in the case of non-compliance.

SafeWork SA undertook 15,452 compliance and enforcement visits for 2018-19 and 34,719 education, engagement and support activities to support businesses and workers improve their work health and safety and industrial relations outcomes.

Respond to the evaluation of SafeWork SA conducted by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.

On 9 May 2019, the Chief Executive, Department of Treasury and Finance, formally responded to the Commissioner, addressing each of the 39 recommendations and how SafeWork SA intends to implement them.

As at 30 June 2019, four recommendations had been completed, and two recommendations (which have multiple components) had been partially completed.

Shared Services

Implement an electronic forms solution to streamline current human resources administrative processes.

The initial design, discovery and testing phase for a new electronic forms solution is nearing completion. This phase has included the development of a number of prototype forms. Subject to business case approval, Shared Services will commence implementation of the new solution in 2019-20.

Work with the Department of Health and Wellbeing to increase the number of staff electronically rostered and paid via the ProAct system, significantly reducing the need for the submission of manual timesheets and leave requests.

Phase 1 of the ProAct rostering expansion project is underway and on track for completion by March 2020. The subsequent project phases will be progressed over the next 12-18 months.

Rollout a standardised policy and process for Goods and Services Tax and Fringe Benefits Tax sampling and reporting across government agencies.

A standardised policy for Goods and Services Tax sampling and reporting across agencies has been successfully implemented. A draft standard policy for Fringe Benefits Tax has also been developed, which will be finalised and rolled-out during 2019-20.

Coordinate the system and process changes required to implement the government’s commitment to automatically pay interest to businesses on overdue invoices.

The government’s commitment was successfully implemented in December 2018 following amendment of the Late Payment of Government Debts (Interest) Act 2013. During 2018-19, interest was automatically paid on 1,414 overdue invoices, totalling $104,503.

Continue to deliver an effective and efficient claims and return to work model for workers compensation cases managed by work injury services, including the development of return to work plans assisting agencies to identify suitable employment opportunities for injured employees.

During 2018-19, 278 new workers compensations claims were received, 474 rehabilitation assessments completed and 6,400 invoices processed on behalf of injured workers across 29 client agencies.

Whole of Government Procurement

Continue to deliver cost efficiencies in relation to the delivery of procurement services.

Three new across government contracts were established in 2018-19 (electricity metering, mainframe services and travel management services), which deliver cost efficiencies and other benefits when compared to the previous arrangements.

Deliver targeted training opportunities and other strategies to improve the procurement capability across government.

Government Services supported the State Procurement Board in improving procurement capability across government through a number of initiatives, including:

• Holding two procurement forums;
• Launching a suite of online training courses;
• Facilitating 49 face to face training sessions, which a total of 599 staff attended; and
• Establishing a Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Corporate Award Program.

Deliver a new across government contract for professional services.

A new across government panel contract for professional services commenced on 16 October 2018.

Deliver the next round of State Procurement Board accreditation and assurance programs.

The next round of the Accreditation and Assurance Programs has commenced. A number of agency procurement reviews were completed under these programs during 2018-19.

Electorate Services

Represent the Government of South Australia as the employer in the renegotiation of the enterprise agreement assistants to the members of the South Australian Parliament Enterprise Agreement.

The Public Sector Enterprise Bargaining Principles were forwarded to Unions, Associations and Bargaining Representatives by DTF in October 2018 with the initial single bargaining committee meeting occurring in November 2018. Logs of claims from the ASU, PSA and Non-Unionised Assistants representatives were received in February 2019 and negotiations undertaken resulting in terms of offer for a new Agreement being forwarded in April 2019. The Enterprise Bargaining process is progressing and as at 30 June 2019, was yet to be finalised.

Continue to deliver electorate office relocations in line with the outcome of the 2016 Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission redistribution of electoral boundaries.

New office options have been secured for Wright, Mawson and Reynell with lessor works having commenced. A new Hurtle Vale office has been delivered. Electorate offices within the new boundaries of Davenport, King, Taylor and Waite have been established. Investigations continue for suitable sites in the electorates of Lee and Black.

Continue to investigate and implement the use of digital technologies to streamline paper-based administrative functions.

The rollout of mobile computing devices to the Ministerial Chauffeur group is 75% complete that supports digital communications, completing online training, exchange of payroll data and remote access to web based information used in the delivery of the chauffeur service.

Online Performance
Discussion Process

100% of DTF employees have Performance Discussions which are facilitated and documented through the OurDevelopment learning management system. The formal Performance Discussion process is biannual, and focusses on engaging with our people, and building relationships.

EXOCOF

1

SAES 2

11

SAES 1

33

Non SAES Executive

6

Acting Executive

3

Professional behaviour

Staff attitude

Failure to demonstrate values such as empathy, respect, fairness, courtesy, extra mile; cultural competency.

7

Professional behaviour

Staff competency

Failure to action service request; poorly informed decisions; incorrect or incomplete service provided.

11

Professional behaviour

Staff knowledge

Lack of service specific knowledge; incomplete or out-of-date knowledge.

0

Communication

Communication quality

Inadequate, delayed or absent communication with customer.

76

Communication

Confidentiality

Customer’s confidentiality or privacy not respected; information shared incorrectly.

1

Service delivery

Systems/technology

System offline; inaccessible to customer; incorrect result/information provided; poor system design.

17

Service delivery

Access to services

Service difficult to find; location poor; facilities/ environment poor standard; not accessible to customers with disabilities.

3

Service delivery

Process

Processing error; incorrect process used; delay in processing application; process not customer responsive.

247

Policy

Policy application

Incorrect policy interpretation; incorrect policy applied; conflicting policy advice given.

1

Policy

Policy content

Policy content difficult to understand; policy unreasonable or disadvantages customer.

40

Service quality

Information

Incorrect, incomplete, out dated or inadequate information; not fit for purpose.

2

Service quality

Access to information

Information difficult to understand, hard to find or difficult to use; not plain English.

2

Service quality

Timeliness

Lack of staff punctuality; excessive waiting times (outside of service standard); timelines not met.

5

Service quality

Safety

Maintenance; personal or family safety; duty of care not shown; poor security service/ premises; poor cleanliness.

1

Service quality

Service responsiveness

Service design doesn’t meet customer needs; poor service fit with customer expectations.

1

No case to answer

No case to answer

Third party; customer misunderstanding; redirected to another agency; insufficient information to investigate.

11

Super SA Entitlements

Entitlements

Incorrect or perceived incorrect entitlement held or paid.

14

Super SA Investments

Investments

Investment fees; Dissatisfaction with investment of assets.

10

Total

449

% Complaints resolved within policy timeframes

100%

Revenue SA:

• Electronic billing to address complaints regarding change of address and faster billing.
• Upgrades to telephone system to direct calls to the relevant area.
• Increase web direct access to lodge a complaint.
• Redesign ESL and Land Tax high impact customer letters.
• Review of Web content technical information and issue of revenue rulings and information circulars.
• Additional user friendly functionality added to RevenueSA Online.