Establishing and maintaining high governance standards is crucial to effective operation of public and private organisations. That’s why Internetrix is delighted to announce that through the implementation of Nucleus, our knowledge management product, we are helping local government executives enhance and maintain governance practices.

Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) is the leading professional association representing managers and aspiring managers in Australia and Asia Pacific. The NSW division is comprised of a Board, CEO and staff, a number of regional branches and special interest groups throughout the state. In total, LGMA (NSW) has about 750 members, the majority of whom are local government executives.

In the wake of many local government scandals, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the LGMA (NSW) prepared a self audit guide to good governance in local government. Designed to give councils a simple tool to identify key elements of corporate governance, the main aim of the Governance Health Check (GHC) was to encourage the exchange of information on good governance practices between local council members.

To get full value from the report, senior management needed to actively engage in networking and benchmarking with other local government organisations. The LGMA was stumped as to how an 83 page PDF document comprised of text guidelines, forms and worksheet would actively help disparate council executives collaborate. The GHC had to be in a central, accessible repository for participants to access, review and comment on.

To solve this problem, Internetrix transformed the health check into a digital format, allowing senior executives from across the state to collaborate on governance initiatives. By setting up an intranet, with Internetrix Nucleus as the core point of contact for intellectual property, geographically dispersed local government executives can now access shared information, make comments and debate governance issues.

As time passes, Nucleus will continue to grow to become a helpful governance library for local government.