Legislative Council Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Answers to Questions Answers to Questions Public Sector Reform PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM The Hon. R.I. LUCAS Legislative Council PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM In reply to the Hon. R.I. LUCAS (29 April 2008). The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY Legislative Council Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business): 1.	The Premier has been advised of the following information: There have been many recent changes put in place to improve efficiencies within the South Australian public service, a number of these as a result of the work of the Government Reform Commission. During its 18 month term, the GRC, under the leadership of Wayne Goss, undertook to identify wide ranging public sector reforms that would have an immediate and lasting impact. The GRC certainly delivered on this and we now have the Public Sector Performance Commission to continue this work. One of the GRC’s tasks was to identify opportunities to improve the way government operates, to look at the obstacles that slow down government processes. One of their initiatives to address this was the establishment of the Project Coordination Board. This board, chaired by Jim Hallion, chief executive of the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, now works to streamline implementation of major projects and infrastructure developments by shifting barriers and unblocking deadlocks. Efficiency improvements are also being made through the government’s shared services reform. Shared Services SA has been working to standardise business processes and systems across the public service, and enable agencies to increase their focus on their core business and service delivery priorities. 2.	The Treasurer has provided the following information: The actual number of FTEs in the general government sector at 30 June 2007 was 74,779. The 1,571 FTEs in the member’s question relates to shared services and other savings measures announced in the 2006-07 budget. This does not include the growth in FTE’s resulting from budget initiatives in that or subsequent budgets. The FTE cap at 30 June 2008 is 77,041, that includes the impact of the budget and savings initiatives. The Department of Treasury and Finance continues to monitor FTE numbers against the FTE cap.