Human Resources

Financial and business services

Financial and business services

Financial Services

During 2002-2003, AMSA has focused on the review and upgrade of its financial systems to provide improved support for internal Divisions' budget management requirements and to address changes being implemented in 2003-2004 to the Commonwealth Financial Reporting Framework. These will require more frequent and earlier financial reporting and advanced deadlines for end of year reporting.

AMSA also has ensured that it complies with the Commonwealth Cost Recovery Guidelines for Information and Regulatory Agencies released in December 2002, which aim to heighten the transparency, consistency and accountability of cost recovery by government agencies. AMSA already complies with the guideline's main requirements, which include adoption of a Cost Recovery Impact Statement, regular review of levy arrangements to ensure the scale and incidence of cost recovery is appropriate to the services provided, review of fees and charges to ensure they reflect efficient costs in delivering services and that there is no cross subsidisation between these services and those recovered under AMSA's levies, and having established stakeholder consultation arrangements.

Revenue

AMSA's main sources of income are from government revenues, including levy funding and Community Service Obligation funding, and sales of goods and services.

The major part of AMSA's revenue arises from the three levies corresponding to AMSA's three major functions in ship safety regulation (Regulatory Functions Levy), the national network of marine aids to navigation (Marine Navigation Levy) and marine pollution response (Pollution Levy). The total amount of levies collected from the shipping industry in 2002-2003 was $45.746 million which represented 66.2 per cent of total revenue for the financial year.

While there was no change in the levy rate for the other two levies, the collection from both has gradually increased over time with shipping growth. In the case of the Regulatory Levy, this helped fund the improved targeting of AMSA's ship inspection program at higher risk ships and the focused ship inspection program giving attention to specific safety and operational issues. The growth in pollution levy funding is directed at AMSA's management of the national strategy for preparedness and response to ship sourced pollution. The trend in levy receipts is illustrated below.

graph indicating the The trend in levy receipts

The Community Service Obligation (CSO) funding meets the cost of search and rescue coordination services. It comprises an annual appropriation for the personnel and infrastructure involved in providing search and rescue services and an annual administered appropriation for the costs of responding to search and rescue incidents (mainly the cost of hiring aircraft). In 2002-2003, total CSO funding was $15.71 million representing 23 per cent of total revenue. The trend in CSO funding receipts is illustrated in the following graph.

trend in CSO funding receipts

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Expenditure

Operating expenses in 2002-2003 total $61.337 million, comprising principally employees and suppliers expenses and depreciation. The trend in these components of AMSA's operating expenses is illustrated below.

The trend in these components of AMSA's operating expenses

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Management Systems

During 2002-2003, AMSA's three operational Divisions, Emergency Response Division , Maritime Safety and Environmental Strategy Division , and Maritime Operations maintained their third party certification to AS/NZS ISO9001: 2000 international standards. The Corporate Services Division is working towards full implementation of an AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000 compliant quality management system and third party certification by end 2003.

AMSA is continuing with the implementation of its Environmental Management System. It has adopted an environmental policy, undertaken an environmental risk assessment for each Division and completed a gap analysis between its quality management systems and the ISO14001:1996 standard for environmental management. The aim is to have one major site certified to the ISO14001:1996 international standard by end 2003. This will meet the requirements of the Commonwealth Government's decision to encourage Commonwealth agencies to implement an Environmental Management System (EMS) and have one site certified by end December 2003.

AMSA continued its risk management program in 2002-2003, which extends to all aspects of the business and includes measures in place to respond to AMSA's risk profile, which are reviewed on a six monthly basis. In 2002-2003, the Australian National Audit Office conducted a business support process audit of the management of risk and insurance by the Commonwealth public sector. This included a detailed audit of five government departments and agencies including AMSA. [The audit report did not identify any major issues with AMSA's administration of insurance and risk management and AMSA was ranked among the top agencies under each performance criteria examined by the audit.]

AMSA also has undertaken a review in 2002-2003 of its Business Continuity Planning, which aims to ensure the uninterrupted supply of key business resources and systems to support AMSA's critical functions in the event of a disaster, particularly AMSA's search and rescue and shipping incident response operations. Regular simulated exercises to test the Business Continuity Plan are to be held in 2003-2004.

Following the release in October 2000 by the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth Protective Security Manual, AMSA has been taking action to follow its recommended common protective security policies, principles, standards and procedures for the protection of government agencies' staff, official information and resources. AMSA engaged a consultant security specialist to undertake a security risk assessment of the head office risk profile, provide guidance on addressing any issues arising from that review, and to assist in developing AMSA's Security Plan, in line with the requirements of the Manual.

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Information Services

AMSA is undertaking a number of initiatives in Information Services to consolidate and improve its service delivery and support its business functions. An important component in achieving this objective is to continue to deliver an Information Services governance framework. The methodology provided through this framework promotes measurable, continuous improvement across key service and support offerings within Information Services.

During 2002-2003, major Information Services activities included development of the following projects:

Information Services future work program includes the following projects:

Shipping Registration Services

AMSA provides the ship registration service for the maritime and fishing industries and the boating community pursuant to the Commonwealth Shipping Registration Act 1981 as part of its General Counsel bureau. The number of ships on the Register increased by 152 during 2002-2003 with 9,040 registered at 30 June 2003, compared with 8,888 registered at 30 June 2002. There were 240 ships registered during the year.

Amendments have been proposed to the Shipping Registration Act 1981 following recommendations of the regulatory review of the legislation. The main recommendations were to remove the requirement for large commercial or trading ships to be registered and to divide the register into four parts with one each for title, nationality, foreign-owned demise-chartered ships, and ships in the course of construction. The amending legislation is expected to be introduced into Federal Parliament in 2003-2004.

State Recreational Fishing Government Demise Charter Commercial & Trading TOTAL
NSW 1832 283 4 6 255 2380
VIC 690 202 0 0 96 988
QLD 1678 761 18 13 414 2884
SA 281 311 1 0 46 639
WA 640 419 1 3 147 1210
TAS 273 227 1 0 60 561
NT 284 63 1 0 30 378
TOTAL 5678 2266 26 22 1048 9040

Summary of registered ships as at 30 June 2003

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