The Department of Treasury and Finance has recently written to all Departmental Secretaries alerting them to the findings and recommendations contained in the Ombudsman’s report on probity controls at certain public hospitals.

This is part of a growing body of evidence which suggests that some government entities are merely paying lip service to public sector purchasing guidelines and to the Australian Standard on risk management.  This is consistent with recent surveys of attitudes to risk management in the market as a whole, which suggest that for many “near enough is good enough”. Your department may, of course, be an exception.

In the face of the global financial crisis, it is essential that all organisations take a fresh look at the risk profile which confronts them. This is not a time to roll forward last year’s risk register or to follow a process which will only draw out the same entrenched positions which have shaped the register in the past. This is the time to ensure that an appropriate level of risk awareness is embedded into the culture of the organisation and that the risk register is not a document which sits ‘outside’ day-to-day routines as a record maintained solely for “compliance purposes”.

In Jonathan Thomas, Alan Fotheringham and Theresa Glab, Moore Stephens’ rapidly growing Risk Management practice includes three of the most skilled and experienced risk management advisors working in the Victorian public sector today. If you are concerned that the risks now confronting any of the entities in your department are not being given appropriate attention, please feel free to contact Jonathan, Alan or Theresa on (03) 9614 4444 or email Alan at afotheringham@moorestephens.com.au.