Reports and Publications

• Statement of Intent 2006
  • Contents
  • Preface by the Minister of Defence
  • Statement of responsibility
  • Chief Executive's introduction
  • Structure and roles of the Ministry
  • Part 1: Strategic framework
  • Part 2: Departmental forecast report
  • Part 3: Non-departmental forecast report

Within this section

Measuring our performance - our performance framework

• What will we do to find out about what difference we make?
• Cost effectiveness of the Ministry's interventions
• Key risks
• Risk mitigation

Statement of Intent 1 July 2006 - 30 June 2009

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Part 1: Strategic framework (continued)

Measuring our performance - our performance framework

Measuring performance is an important part of the managing for outcomes environment. This importance is now reflected in the Public Finance Amendment Act, which was passed in December 2004. The Act sets out new requirements for information on departmental operating intentions, including specific measures for impacts, outcomes and objectives. The Ministry needs to know what difference it makes in supporting New Zealand's security objectives and contributing to the security of other countries and whether our interventions are cost effective.

What will we do to find out about what difference we make?

We intend to assess the impact of our outputs of:

• audit and assessment of performance
• management of equipment procurement
• policy advice.

We will do this by considering whether:

• Government and key stakeholders value advice and feedback provided by the Ministry as being relevant, timely and adding value
• improvements take place over time with respect to supporting New Zealand's security objectives and contributing to the support of other countries.

The key performance measures and standards we will use are:

• stakeholder feedback
• maintaining ISO 9001 accreditation in relevant work areas
• reviewing HR trends in the public and private sector (because with some Ministry roles we are in competition with the private sector)
• our own assessments.

Cost effectiveness of the Ministry's interventions

Developing cost effectiveness methodology is a challenge for a policy-oriented Ministry working collectively in a complex operating environment.

The Ministry, as the principal civilian advisor to the Government on defence, is very much focused on achieving value for money. This will be achieved incrementally over a period of years from a cumulative series of interventions. This makes it difficult to define timeframes for assessing the level of success within the time frame of a Statement of Intent. This is important and it will require a long-term approach.

We intend to:

• develop a broad set of indicators that reflect the various aspects of our activities
• report on progress towards measurement in our Annual Report.

Key risks

The following key strategic risks exist:

• failure to meet stakeholder expectations
• failure to maintain our credibility with respect to advice and actions
• failure to develop and maintain capability within the Ministry
• failure to recruit key staff e.g. senior project managers and senior policy analysts.

Risk mitigation

We propose taking the following steps to further mitigate these risks:

• ongoing stakeholder feed back
• ongoing revision of corporate policies and procedures
• ongoing reviews of our systems e.g. information management
• ongoing professional development programmes
• ongoing involvement in leadership development centre programmes.

We believe the work that is underway, listed in the table below, will continue to help us in meeting the requirements of the Public Finance Amendment Act.

Division	Intention	Measure
Acquisition	All projects have a risk register and employ independent risk consultants to identify, monitor and mitigate risk to ensure that major procurement projects will be delivered on time and to budget.	Each project undergoes comprehensive risk analysis. The division holds ISO 9001 accreditation. Continuous audits are undertaken by Audit New Zealand and the Ministry's Evaluation Division to assess efficiency and efficacy of the procurement process and compliance with Office of the Auditor-General Guidelines.
Corporate including Finance	The Ministry's organisational health and capability to effectively manage its functions and operations in a cost effective manner.	Continued recruitment of suitably qualified staff and maintenance of an effective retention rate. Participate in the new Defence building project to further improve joint effectiveness with defence/security stakeholders. Expenditure is accurately recorded, fiscal risks identified, monitored and mitigated and timely reports provided.
Evaluation	Evaluation will inform the Minister as to the efficient and effective performance of the New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence's procurement activities. Chief executives will be advised of areas where performance improvement can be made.	Real changes and improvement happens as a result of evaluation activity. Evaluation reports are timely and add value. Evaluation reports meet the Minister's requirements.
Policy and Planning	Analysis, reviews and reports (1) to determine how best to implement government defence and security policy, and (2) to identify key changes in the international security environment and develop possible policy responses.	Oversight of the Division's policy and planning contributions by the Executive Capability Board and Office of the Chief Executives. Consistent Ministerial and agency feedback on policy inputs. A higher profile gained in the government security sector.

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