The requirement for major capital projects to be subject to a Gateway review process was introduced by the NSW Government in 2004 in order to mitigate the risks associated with investing in major projects and support the effective delivery of Government objectives. Gateway was introduced as an independent assurance process for capital projects that had a value of $10 million or more. All of these projects required reviews at preliminary and strategic business case stage at a minimum.
This approach was based purely on monetary thresholds and did not consider the risks associated with the delivery of the project. This has meant that low risk projects have had the same level of review as higher risk projects. Moving to a risk based approach to Gateway will allow better targeting of Gateway resources and improve overall assurance to Delivery Agencies and to Government.
The purpose of this Policy and Guidelines Paper is to:
■ Outline the NSW Gateway Policy
■ Define Gateway principles and set minimum requirements for the Gateway process in support of a risk based approach to the delivery of Gateway
■ Establish Gateway Coordination Agencies (GCAs) as the operators of Gateway policy in NSW and establish core requirements for GCAs
■ Clarify roles and responsibilities for delivering Gateway, including the core requirements for Delivery Agencies and the role of the Policy Owner
■ Establish requirements for monitoring and evaluation of Gateway effectiveness
■ Define the gates that can be applied as part of a Gateway assurance process.
To support this purpose, the document has been structured in three (3) parts:
Part A provides an overview of the Policy and outlines the Policy's objectives, purpose, and applicability. It outlines the role of Gateway in delivering value for money to NSW taxpayers by providing independent peer reviews at key decision points in a project's lifecycle.
Part B establishes the Principles of Gateway, designed to set out expected requirements for the development of GCA frameworks and support a consistent and comparable assurance process. The Principles of Gateway are:
■ Management of Risks
■ Value for the Investor and Delivery Agency
■ Independence and Confidentiality
■ Transparency and Accountability
■ Continuous Improvement.
Part C establishes Core Requirements for GCAs, Delivery Agencies, and the Policy Owner.
GCAs are required to develop, implement and report on a GCA Framework that is consistent with the Principles of Gateway and endorsed by the Policy Owner and a nominated Cabinet Committee.
Delivery agencies are required to identify the appropriate GCA Framework for a project and to comply with the requirements of the identified GCA Framework. It is the GCA Frameworks, rather than this Policy document, that set out detailed requirements, financial thresholds or other operational aspects of Gateway.
The Policy Owner is required to monitor and report on the application and performance of the Policy, and identify the applicable GCA Framework for projects in which the appropriate framework is unclear or disputed.
This Policy contains the following attachments which provide additional details for GCAs and Delivery Agencies:
• Attachment A - Nominated GCAs and corresponding GCA Frameworks
• Attachment B - Gateway Governance Summary
• Attachment C - Gateway Review process including standard Gate descriptions