A major independent review of the ACT Public Service has recommended it be restructured as a single department, to reflect the city-state nature of the ACT and to allow for greater coordination between areas of the bureaucracy.

A number of "Directorates" would sit within the single department, but all would ultimately report to a single Chief Executive. The single department would allow the public service to better reflect whole-of-government priorities and work as a single agency.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has released the report of the review, which was carried out over the past six months by former Commonwealth departmental secretary Dr Allan Hawke.

Mr Stanhope said the Government accepted the wisdom of the report in its totality and would immediately establish a high-level implementation taskforce within the ACT Public Service to work through each of the specific recommendations, advise on necessary legislative changes, timing and funding implications.  He said that he did not expect that there would be job cuts associated with the restructure.

Mr Stanhope said the review was part of a suite of work by the ACT Government that included plans for a thorough review of the Self-Government Act, the first comprehensive review of Territory taxes since self-government, and major improvements to methods of community consultation and feedback.

"The Government has also recently finalised new Performance and Accountability and Evaluation Frameworks, endorsed by Dr Hawke, that will improve accountability to the Assembly and the community and drive improvements in the quality of the services Government provides.

"I also intend to write to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, asking that we establish a process for exploring how the work of the Assembly itself might be improved to reflect the real nature of the work we are embarked upon as a Parliament, and how we might exert ourselves more effectively in the service of Canberrans."

Mr Stanhope said the cost of the restructure and other work would become clearer as the implementation taskforce started to report back on timelines and logistics, but he expected the broad structural changes to be reasonably cost-neutral.

The Hawke review can be found in full at http://www.actpsreview.act.gov.au/home