Outcome:	1. Environment			Question No: 10
Division/Agency:	Portfolio
Topic:	Travel expenditure
Hansard Page ECITA:	Written Question on Notice

Senator Steve Fielding  asked:

1.	How much money has the portfolio spent on domestic airfares for each of the last three financial years?

2.	How much money has the portfolio spent on overseas airfares for each of the last three financial years?

3.	How much money has the portfolio spent on economy class domestic airfares for each of the last three financial years?

4.	How much money has the portfolio spent on business class domestic airfares for each of the last three financial years?

5.	How much has the portfolio spent on first class domestic airfares for each of the last three financial years?

6.	What would be the estimated financial year dollar saving if all public servants in the portfolio travelled economy class for flights of less than one and a half hours duration?

Answer/s:

1.	
Financial Year	Total Domestic Airfare Expenditure	
2002-2003	$4,753,064 	
2003-2004	$5,565,997	
2004-2005	$7,057,829	

2.
Financial Year	Total International Airfare Expenditure	
2002-2003	$2,120,001	
2003-2004	$2,231,147	
2004-2005	$2,596,729	

3.	
Financial Year	Economy Class Domestic Airfare Expenditure	
2002-2003	$4,053,098	
2003-2004	$4,594,742	
2004-2005	$5,691,339	

4.
Financial Year	Business Class Domestic Airfare Expenditure	
2002-2003	$699,966	
2003-2004	$971,254	
2004-2005	$1,366,490	

5.	The Portfolio had no expenditure on First Class Domestic Fares for the last three financial years. 

6.	The Portfolio utilises the lowest logical Fare of the day. It is not possible to provide an estimate of the savings as it would be too resource intensive to project the utilisation and availability of fares.

Outcome:	1. Environment			Question No: 11
Division/Agency:	Portfolio
Topic:	Senate Order
Hansard Page ECITA:	Written Question on Notice

Senator Murray asked:
1.	What guidance is provided to staff with responsibilities for contract negotiations specifically about the requirements of the Senate Order? If relevant guidance is not provided, please explain why this is the case.

2.	What training and awareness sessions are provided, either in-house or through other training providers (eg. DOFA, APS Commission or private firms) in respect of the Order? Please provide a list of the dates, the identity of the training providers and the content of the training that staff attended in 2005. If training and awareness sessions are not provided, please explain why this is the case.

3.	Has the department/agency revised its procurement guidelines to incorporate the new Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines that took effect from 1 January 2005, particularly with respect to the confidentiality elements contained in those guidelines? If so, when did this occur and can a copy be provided? If not, what is the cause of the delay and when will the revision occur?

4.	ANAO audits for the last three years have revealed a consistently low level of compliance across most agencies with DOFA confidentiality criteria (February 2003) for determining whether commercial information should be protected as confidential. The ANAO's latest report on the Order (No.11 2005-2006, September 2005) states that departments and agencies need to give higher priority with this important requirement of the Senate Order.

•	What specific measures have been or will be taken to address this problem, give it higher priority and raise compliance levels?
•	What guidance and training are provided to staff about the confidentiality criteria and the four tests employed to determine whether information should be protected?
•	What internal auditing or checking is performed to test compliance in this area? If none is performed, why not and is the agency considering the adoption of internal controls and checks?

5.	What problems, if any, has the agency and/or relevant staff experienced in complying with the Senate Order? What is the nature and cause of any problems? What measures have been, or could be, adopted to address these concerns?

Answer/s:
1.	The Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH) Procurement Guidelines include details about the Senate Order reporting and confidentiality requirements and provide links to the DoFA guidance material  
No. 8 Guidance on the Listing of Contract Details on the Internet (Meeting the Senate Order on Department and Agency Contracts), January 2004  and No. 3 Guidance on Confidentiality of Contractors' Commercial Information, February 2003.

All DEH contracts must be prepared on standard contract templates, which include guidance on all requirements of the contract. The confidentiality requirements (a requirement of the Senate Order) are specified in the template. Any amendments to the standard template are to be cleared through the departmental legal area and through this process one-on-one guidance on any changes is provided.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Contract and Consultancy Unit performs a principal role in contract negotiations. The staff in this area have sufficient guidance (issued by Department of Finance and Administration and Australian National Audit Office) on the requirements of the Senate Order and carry out the responsibility for meeting the requirement of the Order.

The staff of the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator (ORER) access the Senate Order guidance material from the DoFA website.

2.	DoFA conducted a series of Procurement Seminars about the introduction of the new CPGs. The first series commenced on 20 September 2004 and a second series from 19 October 2005. DEH and portfolio staff participated in these seminars both in Canberra and interstate. Senate Order reporting requirements were covered in the first series of seminars. Confidentiality requirements are covered in more detail in the second series.

DoFA also conducted three seminars in-house for DEH staff. These seminars were conducted on 1 July, 20 July and 9 August 2005.

3.	Revised guidelines were updated to incorporate the changes resulting from the new CPGs and were available to DEH and ORER staff on the DEH intranet, from early January 2005. 

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a staff notice to all relevant areas of the Bureau, summarising the changes and a copy of the CPGs was also provided.

4.	Departmental and agency staff are aware of the confidentiality criteria and reporting requirements. Procurement Guidelines include details about the Senate Order reporting and confidentiality requirements and provides links to the DoFA guidance material. One of these links is to the Guidance on Confidentiality of Contractors’ Commercial Information February 2003.

The DEH and agency procurement, contract and legal staff provide ongoing guidance and advice to staff on these issues.

In addition, DEH purchase orders are checked by the DEH Procurement Team before the purchase order is submitted to the financial delegate for approval. The confidentiality requirements are part of this checking procedure. Further, when the Senate Order reports are compiled every 6 months, the reports are scrutinised by the Procurement Team and the data is verified and clarified with the relevant Divisions.

5.	We are not aware of any major problems in recent reporting cycles by the Department and the agencies who are required to comply with the Senate Order. The Department and agencies have complied with all the Senate Order reporting requirements.