Delivery Program 2009–2012 - Rockdale City Council - NSW ...

Risk Management StrategyCouncil recognises risk management is an integral part of good corporate governance. Our approach to RiskManagement is consistent with the Australian Standard on Risk Management (AS/NZS 4360:1999).Council has adopted a systematic, holistic approach to managing risks: we identify, analyse, evaluate and treat therisks. We have undertaken a comprehensive exercise in risk identification in each Service Unit and developed plans tomanage them. We apply the basic quality principles of plan: do, then check, and we find this greatly contributes to theconsistency and integrity of our risk database.We have integrated the principles of risk management into our decision-making at all levels. This is vital to sound riskmanagement and has greatly strengthened the understanding of what risk management is about for our organisation.We manage risk at corporate, operational, project and individual levels.Risks identified at the operational level are managed by each Service Unit and/or team through their annual actionplans. By successfully integrating risk concerns into our organisation’s daily operations, we protect our ability to deliverour services in the manner expected by our community. At the higher level the Executive Committee manages ouremerging and higher level corporate risks by quarterly reviews of the risk action plans.Effectively managing risks provides the following benefits:◆ A more rigorous basis for strategic planning as a result of a structured consideration of the key elements of risk;◆ Better identification and exploitation of opportunities;◆ Minimises unforeseen events and occurrences;◆ Better outcomes in terms of program effectiveness and efficiency;◆ Greater openness and transparency in decision-making and management processes;◆ A better preparedness for, and facilitation of, positive outcomes from subsequent internal/external review andaudit processes;◆ Improved loss control, reduced loss/incident damage and cost of risk including commercial insurance premiums;◆ Potential for reduction or stability in risk financing costs over the longer-term due to increased confidence ofinsurers in their risk aware clients;◆ Improved flexibility in developing alternative actions through a better understanding of the sources of risk; and◆ Compliance with relevant legislation.Managing risks enables a thorough understanding of our business and the services delivered. It is an integral initiativeto ensure good corporate governance.Rockdale City Plan | 18