Tax Commissioner Rob Heferen has responded with an action plan to the capability review of the ATO. Photo: LinkedIn.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has outlined an action plan to better coordinate internal tasks so staff are not working at cross-purposes within the department.
A recent capability review of the ATO was conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission and published in March this year.
The agency’s action plan in response to the review was released on Friday (11 July).
The review found the ATO to be a high-performing agency and one that was recognised globally as a leading tax system administrator.
It also found, however, four priority areas for capability development. The areas where attention was required were: leadership working as a team; the whole organisation working as one ATO; being ready to take on additional roles as a national asset; and streamlining internal governance and accountabilities.
“Perhaps the most important cultural change will be operating as ‘one ATO’,” the review stated. ”The report acknowledges this is an ambitious goal for an organisation as large and geographically dispersed as the ATO.
“It will be important for the ATO to harness its full capability and act in the interest of the agency as a whole, rather than individual teams or groups, to achieve its vision for the future …
“The review observed that the ATO has an extensive governance architecture, but it is not always fit for purpose.
“Stakeholders said there are too many governance committees and some lack a clear purpose.
“At times they are treated as forums for consultation and consensus rather than making decisions and negotiating trade-offs.
“This was a consistent theme throughout the review – staff said the ATO’s cultural emphasis on consensus means some committee decisions are not taken seriously and implemented.
“Internal and external stakeholders also told the review that the ATO is risk averse.
“The agency has a comprehensive suite of technical artefacts and processes to guide staff how to handle risk, but stakeholders say it has a cultural tendency to avoid, rather than engage with, risk.”
Commissioner of Taxation Rob Heferen delivered an action plan to the APSC, saying all suggestions for improvement had been taken seriously and were being acted on.
“We have a proven track record and have excelled when circumstances have called for us to be at our best,” he said.
“Our role in the government’s response to the pandemic demonstrated what we’re capable of and underscored our potential to be truly exceptional.
“Learning from this and our many other successes, as well as our mistakes, we should not stand still: we need to continually improve.
“The capability review’s insights inform where to focus our ongoing improvement efforts. This future view highlights the capabilities we need to adapt and respond to the changing demands of government, the community and our own operations.”
To work as one ATO, the department needs improved internal collaboration and a leadership group that works as a team and models the right behaviours.
The ATO will also establish enterprise‑wide priorities and shared plans for achieving these aims.
It will make necessary trade‑offs for the sake of the organisation, working through impasses to take collective responsibility for decisions.
It will also accept and reward measured risk‑taking in the interests of innovation, collaboration and achieving better, faster outcomes.
“We need to examine what we do and how we do it, identify opportunities for improvement and make decisive shifts to unlock our full potential,” Mr Heferen said.
“Our performance evolution will help us get there. Drawing on key insights from our APSC capability review, it outlines how we – as one ATO – will align our efforts to not only deliver today’s priorities, but also prepare for and tackle tomorrow’s challenges.”
The action plan points out that these strategies do not mean “everyone doing everything” and insists that accountabilities and decision‑making will still lie with individuals.
There will be a greater understanding, however, of who else is responsible for contributing to outcomes.
“Interconnecting our many moving parts will help us deliver together, as one ATO,” the plan states.
“Delivering together also requires that we be proactive in reducing frictions that might otherwise divert our focus away from the work that contributes most to our purpose and vision.
“We’ll take action to reduce irritants in how we work, deliver incremental changes that improve our efficiency and lay a clear pathway to prioritise larger improvements.”
