This scenario is for employees who work in departments and public entities.
This scenario is about a public entity with a direct relationship with the minister.
It will help you explore what to do when a public entity identifies a significant risk.
The legislation that establishes a public entity informs what protocols they use to raise risks.
Either as a group or on your own:
A public entity executive identifies a significant risk:
To mitigate the risk, the executive develops a strategy:
The public entity executive wants to inform the minister of the risk and strategy — but not as a matter of urgency.
The public entity executive and department director discuss the matter at their regular fortnightly meeting.
The department director disagrees with the public entity executive’s strategy and tells them they have another strategy in place:
As they see it as very sensitive, the department director chooses not to share the strategy with the public entity executive.
The department director closes the meeting with no agreed actions.
The public entity executive escalates the matter to the CEO, telling them:
The CEO says they can’t resolve the issue, as they have no access to a senior decision-maker in the department.
The public entity doesn’t talk with the department again and briefs the minister about the risk and their proposed mitigation strategy.
The brief doesn’t mention the department’s proposed strategy raised by the director in the fortnightly meeting.
The ministerial adviser is vaguely aware that the department has already informed the minister of some work they’re doing on this same risk.
The ministerial adviser confirms this with the department and asks the department to resolve the matter with the public entity.
This confusion causes the minister’s office and the minister to believe:
Use these questions to self-reflect or guide discussions in your team:
If the key relationship manager and entity executives had talked after the meeting, they could have:
Clear oversight and communication protocols would have benefited the public entity and department.
For example, the public entity could have:
Departments should keep in mind that:
Public entities should keep in mind that:
To help strengthen the governance of the relationship and stop these situations from occurring, departments and public entities should:
Public sector employees should demonstrate the values of: