Resources
Members are expected to attend the forum meetings.
The secretariat will liaise with member contacts on various catering and attendance protocols. All members should contact the secretariat regarding requests for reports and other handouts, documentation and specific information related to the forum.
Travel to meetings is at the members' own expense and the use of alternative mechanisms such as teleconferencing will be considered, especially for any sub-group forum activity.
Records management
All records will be kept and made available where appropriate in relation to risk and issues management. This includes all 'out of session' decisions.
Adequate records will be maintained. Records of agendas and related papers will be kept by the secretariat.
All minutes and attachments will be kept for a period of five years. Minutes are published to the ATO website.
Risks and issues management
The FSIP maintains an issues register, with the ATO Assistant Commissioner and National Program Manager S&ME contributing to it as issues arise. The register contains issues identified as being of strategic significance.
Once an issue has been identified, a process begins to address the issue within the ATO immediately. This process includes:
- Escalation of an issue to the point where it can be most appropriately considered. Staff should escalate potential issues to team leaders in the first instance for consideration or further escalation.
- The formation of an opinion as to the significance of the issue and how wide the impact is likely to be.
- If the issue is significant
- the determination of the time frame for responding
- if necessary, the escalation of the issue to where it can be most appropriately addressed
- devising a response or mitigation strategy and, if required, developing a strategy to communicate the ATO response to the issue
- inclusion of the issue on the issues register.
In the case of major strategic issues, it may be necessary to escalate the issue urgently, ensuring senior management are notified immediately. ATO national program managers are also responsible for advising and/or escalating issues of strategic significance to the ATO First Assistant Commissioner, Policy Management Division. ATO sub-plan executives are responsible for ensuring potential issues of strategic significance as a result of changes in strategy (driven by risk) are identified, with proposed mitigation treatments included in sub-plans.
Communication procedures
Decisions (including 'out of session' decisions), meeting outcomes and actions will be communicated to key stakeholders. The secretariat is ultimately responsible for communicating decisions and providing relevant updates to the members.
Payment
It is not ATO policy to pay the travel or accommodation costs incurred by organisations or representatives attending its consultative forums. However, in instances where an organisation might be prevented from attending a meeting due to very limited financial resources, and their absence would detract from the effectiveness and completeness of the consultative process, the ATO may agree to pay travel or accommodation costs. Any decision to fund a participant is made on a case-by-case and on a per meeting basis.
Should an organisation or representative require financial assistance to attend a particular meeting, they should make a submission in writing to the ATO at least one month prior to the meeting date. This will allow the chair to consider the request and make any necessary arrangements. Requests for reimbursement will not be considered for meetings previously attended.
Where travel or accommodation costs have been paid, the participant must provide the ATO with all relevant airline boarding passes and official receipts in order to substantiate the travel and meet audit requirements.
Any other costs associated with the forum (for example, catering or any venue hire) will be met by the ATO.
Escalation of issues
The details of procedures to escalate issues where the chairpersons, secretariat and members of a forum conclude that an issue cannot be satisfactorily resolved, or where particularly important intelligence or sensitive issues are raised, are documented and addressed by the chair. They are as follows:
- the appropriate information is tabled by the forum members along with their concerns
- the chair provides suitable information to the ATO National Program Manager
- the NTLG Finance and Investment Sub-committee is made aware of the development of the issue
- the need for a consultation, co-design or collaborative process is established where appropriate
- the issue may then be raised as a technical issue with the NTLG Sub-committee, or as an administration issue for the appropriate ATO business line to resolve.
Conflicts of interest and roles procedures
The procedures for managing conflicts of interests and roles are:
- each year, members are required to declare potential, perceived or real conflicts of interest they may have in relation to their role in writing, and are required to update them as relevant during the financial year
- at the beginning of each meeting, members should raise any conflict issues - the relevant agenda item may need to be managed in the following ways
- the member is excused from the meeting for the relevant agenda items
- the member remains in the meeting but does not participate in discussion on the relevant agenda items
- the member has an opportunity to contribute to the discussion in other ways, such as offering advice or opinions prior to the issue being discussed by the forum as a whole
- the member contributes to the discussion as a full member, after verbally declaring a conflict.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 27 March 2013