Onkaparinga Corporate Reporting Reform

The City of Onkaparinga is an Adelaide metropolitan council with approximately 700 employees responsible for the provision of services to a local community with a population of around 173,000 residents. Strategic and corporate planning is an integral component of business operations to understand performance, compliance, risk and future opportunities as performed by multiple business areas under various legislation and using a diverse range of processes and systems.

In recognition of increasing demand on the organisation to provide analysis and information on business performance, both internally and to the community, Council sought an external review of corporate planning and reporting. Council’s aim was to establish a future proofed reporting environment that satisfies statutory reporting obligations and is modelled on contemporary and future trends for high-quality and meaningful performance reporting.

The role of Holmes Dyer was to provide an impartial opinion and recommendations on the current and future state of the reporting environment for the City of Onkaparinga. Tasks completed by Holmes Dyer included:

• Review of statutory requirements under the Local Government Act, 1999 and other relevant legislation;
• Across council engagement and consultation with business units including those with responsibilities for managing relevant processes and systems and internal customers and users of those process and systems;
• Independent review of the current suite of strategic and corporate reporting deliverables including benchmarking across comparative Councils in SA and interstate frameworks;
• Case studies of pragmatic best practice examples of reporting structures and technologies relevant to the future corporate reporting suite;
• Development of a strategic approach to planning and reporting supported by an appropriate governance framework;
• Report preparation including key findings, future vision for corporate reporting, and recommendations for establishing a contemporary and forward-looking reporting environment;
• Reform program including transition plan with implementation schedule, relevant phasing and priority actions; and
• Presentation to key stakeholders including employees through to Executive management and the project steering committee

• Year: