Maintaining Long-term Capability

For the Ministry to deliver on its obligations the organisation must be robust, efficient and continually improving. The focus of the Ministry's capability development initiatives is the Organisational Development Plan (ODP) commenced in 2006.

This is a three year plan to ensure the outcomes and strategies set out in the Ministry's Statement of Intent are strongly reflected in, and drive, the organisation's structure, processes, priorities and investments decisions. The ODP also encompasses a number of initiatives to continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ministry.

The ODP represents an opportunity to improve significantly the way we operate. Redesign of, and improvements to, existing processes and the development of new processes – particularly fisheries plans – will provide the basis for the Ministry to move to a more cross-business group approach to our work. At the same time as changing business processes we will also implement our People Strategy to assist in staff development and building the capability of the organisation. Investments have been made, and will continue to be made, in the infrastructure necessary to support and facilitate the successful delivery of Statement of Intent outcomes.

The table at the end of this section shows the organisation to support outcome achievements and the linkage to the State Services Development Goals.

Recent investments

In the past three years significant infrastructure investments have included:

Modernisation of the finance system

The primary objective of the finance system investment was the replacement of a dated system with current technology to ensure that the Ministry has a sound financial systems base to meet its obligations, over the next 5-10 years, for accurate and timely financial management and reporting. The secondary objective was to increase the degree of integration of key resource management tools and information to support new approaches to fisheries management. Both of these objectives were met. Core accounting, time recording, credit card expenditure and research contract information are now all held in one integrated industry-standard system. In achieving this, the Ministry has also remediated the risks inherent in the previous system being a technology that was no longer being supported.

Accommodation

In 2006 the Ministry completed the consolidation of its three downtown Wellington offices in to a single head office based in ASB house. This consolidation on to a single site provides the opportunity for greatly increased staff interaction and synergy gains. Investments were also made in offices in Christchurch and Petone to support the Ministry's initiatives to develop its compliance investigative capability. Offices in Nelson, Kaitaia and Whitianga were also improved to better meet the needs of front line operational staff.

These investments provided an opportunity to develop and implement Ministry-wide accommodation policies covering accommodation and environmental standards, including sustainable practice initiatives.

Website redevelopment

To facilitate the provision of information to stakeholders and other interested parties, and to meet government standards, the Ministry updated its primary website www.fish.govt.nz and its interactive web-based mapping tool www.nabis.govt.nz. Feedback from stakeholders guided the redesign, with information now more readily locatable and accessible. The result of the investment has been an increase in visitor numbers and positive feedback from stakeholders on the improvements. Further development of our website functionality and content will be made to improve access to Ministry information and processes.

Document and records management

To meet its obligations under the Public Records Act 2006, and to facilitate the sharing of information and the development of internal and external collaborative relationships, a major document and records management project was commenced. The objective of the project is to implement best practice information, and document and records management processes as a basis to capture and then easily retrieve and share information. This project is currently moving from the planning to implementation phase. Implementation will be completed during 2007.

Governance, accountability and monitoring

Appropriate organisational governance is important to the Ministry achieving good outcomes. The Ministry operates a range of governance committees; the objectives of these committees are to ensure that:

• there are clear objectives, performance standards and accountabilities established for delivery of the agreed outcomes, outputs and services
• the Ministry maximises the effective utilisation of public resources
• the Ministry's core operating infrastructure and capability is maintained and developed
• the Ministry establishes appropriate risk identification and management processes
• Governance mechanisms will be continually reviewed and adapted to meet emerging needs.

People strategy

The Ministry's People Strategy is designed to ensure that the Ministry attracts, develops and retains the people needed to achieve its organisational goals. The Ministry strives to be recognised as an employer of choice in the Public Sector and to maintain a strong culture of performance and continual learning and improvement. In support of continual learning and improvement a competency based capability development programme will be progressively rolled out through the entire organisation. This follows on from a successful pilot programme implemented by the Ministry's compliance team. Organisational management and leadership development programmes are also under development in association with the Leadership Development Centre.

Stakeholder relationships and communication

To support and facilitate tangata whenua and stakeholder engagement in the strategic management of New Zealand's fisheries the Ministry is progressing the objectives based management of fisheries through multi-party fishery plan teams. Infrastructure is being developed to assist this engagement and to enable the efficient operation of these teams. Significant resource will be invested in web-based capability to share information with tangata whenua, stakeholders and other interested parties and to also facilitate consultation and collaboration processes.

Sustainable work practices

Through sustainable work practices the Ministry has its role to play in helping to preserve the unique quality of life that New Zealanders enjoy. The Ministry is committed to minimising its environmental foot print. This will be achieved by working with all staff to ensure that all of the Ministry's work practices, procurement decisions and resource allocation decisions are as sustainable as practical.

Information

Significant information investments underway include:

Human Resource Information System (HRIS)

To support the implementation and ongoing effective and efficient management of competency, management and leadership development initiatives the Ministry will invest in HRIS capability. This investment will be supported by the standardisation of HR processes and templates.

Updating unique applications

Replacement of aging IT architecture and systems is underway with the migration of the Ministry's technology platform to the Microsoft.Net framework. Standardisation of the Ministry's technology platform will also reduce maintenance and systems development costs.

Electronic capture of observer data

Ministry observers collect very significant amounts of scientific data to support the robust assessment of fish stocks. Investment is being made in moving data recording from a paper based system to an electronic system. In addition to data being available to fisheries managers and scientists much faster this investment will also result in a significant reduction in operating costs.

Procurement

The Ministry is implementing a category management approach to procurement to maximise the value obtained from expenditure on goods and services. This approach includes the consolidation of the Ministry's total purchases in to a limited number of categories, the rationalisation of items purchased within each category and the utilisation of government syndicated purchasing arrangements or public tendering to maximise value. Purchase decisions are made consistent with the Ministry's sustainability objectives.