Statement of Intent 1 July 2003 - 30 June 2004
Part 1: Strategic framework (continued)
Capability within the Ministry
The Ministry of Defence aims to have top-quality people, relationships, and processes that will enable us to achieve our intermediate and high-level outcomes.
We have areas of strong capability, and areas where capability is improving. We also have areas that need further improvement, and will continue to test us.
People
The Ministry of Defence aims to attract and retain:
- high-quality defence analysts
- experts who can manage military equipment procurement
- evaluation analysts who can assess and audit defence activities and functions.
Policy analysts
Defence, international relations and strategic studies are growing in popularity at universities. Students are studying a range of relevant courses locally and internationally. We attract highly qualified graduates with a real interest in defence.
Our challenge is to provide, in a very small organisation, sufficient career opportunities to retain analysts for adequate lengths of time. Our turnover rate is very low, but we are not complacent about our ability to retain staff. We ensure that we have the right human resources policies to recruit, develop, train, and retain high-quality policy analysts.
Acquisition experts
We require people with expertise in the acquisition of military capability. This is a highly specialised area, and needs people who operate to public service standards in a highly competitive commercial environment, sometimes in another culture. Project managers may be required to live overseas for extended periods to supervise an acquisition project. The Ministry is too small and specialised to train and retain people in the full range of skills required, so we must recruit people who have already developed the necessary skills and experience.
Evaluation analysts
In our Evaluation team we seek to maintain a broad range of skills, disciplines and backgrounds.
Relationships
The Ministry of Defence intends to develop its reputation as the prime source of credible and impartial defence advice. As well as having the right people to provide that advice, we must make sure that our advice is accessible to others.
We must ensure that we promote good understanding of defence policy issues with other relevant public sector agencies, for example, the Treasury, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Audit Office.
Our advice will be most effective when it is built on a foundation of cooperation, trust and respect. We will continue to improve our consultative processes and working relationship with the New Zealand Defence Force.
Processes
The Ministry of Defence maintains, and continually seeks to improve, rigorous processes for:
- acquiring military capability for the New Zealand Defence Force
- undertaking audits and assessments
- analysing and managing risks.
Acquiring military capability
We intend to develop our capability management system to ensure that the acquisition of military capability for the New Zealand Defence Force is on time and within budget. We also aim to ensure that each acquisition is clearly aligned with and contributes to the Government's defence policy and objectives.
In collaboration with the New Zealand Defence Force, we will implement improved procurement processes, from identification, through acquisition, to introduction into service. These processes will ensure that both organisations use appropriate levels of governance, accountability, and transparency.
Undertaking audit and assessment
The Evaluation Division will undertake audits and assessments to provide assurance to the Minister that the Ministry of Defence and the New Zealand Defence Force are delivering what they should deliver.
We expect that our audits and assessments will result in better performance and accountability in both organisations. The programme of audit and assessment will be relevant, will focus on the significant, and will examine functions, duties, and projects as they develop. The Defence Evaluation Board will monitor the results of the Division's work, to ensure that it is making a difference.
Analysing and managing risks
We have reviewed our operating environment and the risks we must manage. In doing so, we have identified the strategic risks that we face, within individual divisions and as an organisation.
Our corporate areas of risk are well managed. In the Acquisition Division, individual acquisition projects undergo comprehensive risk analysis, mitigation, and management. We are developing a risk management regime for the capability definition process.
We maintain ISO 9001 certification for our quality management.
Capability improvement
Our capability to persuade and influence, to ensure that we are credible and respected, must continue to improve. We will assess whether our capability development is delivering the outcome we need.
