Our senior management committees are key elements of our governance and assurance. They include the ATO Executive Committee, the Audit Committee and the People Committee (largely comprised of external private and public sector experts).
We have a number of high-level committees that provide leadership and executive management of our performance.
Our key management committees and forums structure
ATO Executive Committee
The ATO Executive Committee assists the Commissioner in setting our direction and responsibilities:
- to administer Australia's taxation and aspects of its superannuation systems
- for the overall delivery of our commitments to government
- to manage the ATO as an agency head consistently with the requirements of the Public Service Act 1999 and the Financial Management Act 1997.
The ATO Executive Committee comprises the Commissioner, the Second Commissioners, and senior executive roles nominated by the Commissioner.
Currently the additional senior executive roles are:
- Chief Finance Officer - Frances Cawthra
- First Assistant Commissioner ATO People - Shane Reardon
- Chief Information Officer - Bill Gibson
- Chief Operating Officer - Robert Ravanello.
Supporting committees
- The Business Continuity Management Steering Committee chaired by the Second Commissioner (Enterprise Solutions and Technology and Operations), is responsible for overseeing governing the Business Continuity Management capability development program.
- The Communication and Research Committee, chaired by the Second Commissioner (Corporate Services and Law), is responsible for overseeing our research and communication activities.
- The Corporate Design Forum, chaired by the Commissioner, is used as a think tank to explore administrative design issues on strategic planning, enterprise risks and service delivery.
- The Law Interpretation Strategy Committee, chaired by the Second Commissioner (Corporate Services and Law), has been established to shape our approach to the interpretation and application of the tax and superannuation law in order to provide to the community more timely and quality products.
- The National Consultative Forum is chaired by the Commissioner. It enables consultation on organisational or operational change that may affect employees at a national level.
- The Plenary Governance Forum chaired by the Commissioner, is a key enterprise level governance mechanism. It provides an assessment on our overall performance and conformance against our plans and commitments, as well as highlighting any emerging risks.
- The Policy Implementation Forum, chaired by the Second Commissioner (Corporate Services and Law), is responsible for overseeing from a 'whole-of-ATO view' projects which design and implement policy and legislative changes to the tax, superannuation, excise and related systems.
- The Resource Forum, chaired by the Chief Financial Officer, ensures an integrated approach to resource management and provides advice to the ATO Executive Committee on the management of our budget.
- The Security Committee, chaired by the Second Commissioner (Enterprise Solutions and Technology), ensures a consistent, integrated, enterprise-wide approach to security.
- The Service Improvement Steering Committee, chaired by the Second Commissioner (Enterprise Solutions and Technology), is the enterprise body responsible for developing the five-year ATO service delivery agenda.
People Committee
Operating as a think tank and chaired by the Commissioner, the People Committee provides strategic guidance on how our people system (including people, culture and integrity) can be enhanced to drive our strategic direction and business outcomes in the most effective and sustainable way, consistent with our values.
The committee involves private sector attendees, senior attendees from other Commonwealth or territory agencies, expert consultants, senior ATO officers, a frontline team leader and recent graduates. Topics canvassed included integrity frameworks, productivity, engagement and trust, leadership types and cultural models, values-based leadership, and compliments, complaints and feedback.
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee, chaired by the Second Commissioner (Corporate Services and Law), provides assurance and assistance on our risk, control and compliance frameworks, external accountability requirements, legislative compliance, and internal and external audit. It has three independent private sector members.
External consultative forums
External consultative forums provide us with different views and experiences and support our enterprise-wide strategic focus on issues, risk and opportunities for improvement.
Our consultative forums help us:
- identify and understand industry, community, tax professional and tax intermediary needs and priorities
- co-design and improve the effectiveness of our products, services, advice and compliance strategies
- promote improvements to the tax and superannuation systems
- consult on new policy implementation design.
External members are generally appointed by their associations.
Our tax technical decision-making processes are augmented by external members on our tax technical panels, and by the views of senior counsel or retired judges as special advisers or members.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 24 April 2013