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Operating Context
1997-98 was the year when the Corporation made significant progress in ensuring that project outputs could be accessed more easily, either via the Internet or by publications.
The Corporation introduced the so-called ‘short reports’ on projects, which are available at no charge and, towards the end of the year, the Corporation finalised Research-in-Progress, June 1998, which summarises the position on all projects completed in 1997-98 or under contract at June 1998. This report is not only a key accountability reference but provides an easy roadmap to the right research contractor about a particular industry issue.
In aggregate, the Corporation’s expenditure on communications increased from $341 000 in 1996-97 to $658 000 in 1997-98. There was also additional expenditure on communications and information transfer at the project and sub-program levels. This increased effort was reflected in higher publication sales revenue-from $100 000 in 1996-97 to $200 000 in 1997-98.
While the Corporation pushed hard in 1997-98 at compressing the research-to-marketplace cycle, its operations in 1997-98 continued to centre on getting the right research under way to meet industry needs and getting the right research contractors to do it. In sum, aggregate expenditure by the Corporation in 1997-98 was $20.9 million compared with $21.4 million in the previous year.
The revenue base of the Corporation in 1997-98 was consistent with budget forecasts and, in accrued terms, the accumulated surpluses of the Corporation at the end June 1998 was $6.2 million.
These reserves are held across a set of industry sub-accounts and what we call ‘RIRDC Core’, which is the direct appropriation from the Federal Government.
In summary terms, the accrued and cash end of June 1998 balances are:
RIRDC Core $m RIRDC Sub-Accounts $m Consolidated $m Accrued (1.1) 7.3 6.2 Cash 0.7 8.5 9.2 The Corporation’s view is that these reserves are appropriate for the operations of the Corporation as it enters 1998-99. Internally, the Corporation continued to upgrade its IT systems so that staff-both full-time and part-time-have access to the information required to do their jobs with increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
During 1997-98 the direction of program management was to rely more heavily on part-time staff. Nearly all of these people are located outside Canberra and ‘effective’ remote access to corporate information systems is vital to make this approach work. We came some distance on this aspect in 1997-98 but more needs to be done in the coming year.
The financial accounts for 1997-98 show corporate and administration costs at $1.50 million. The reduction from the 1996-97 figure of $1.66 million reflects a continuing focus on cost containment.
