4 essential steps to ensure compliance with the Asset Management Accountability Framework (AMAF)

What is the Asset Management Accountability Framework (AMAF)?

We have developed this summary to explain the key points and outline four essential steps to ensure you comply.

At its core, the AMAF is meant to be an asset management guide for all entities within the Victorian Government, including its governmental departments, corporations, and agencies, which are subject to the regulations of the Financial Management Act (FMA) of 1994.

The framework specifies requirements, both mandatory and non-mandatory, of how all assets are to be managed.

Which assets are affected?

Agencies and organisations which are subject to the provisions in the FMA (Vic) must manage all assets, including both physical assets and intangible ones, according to the principles outlined in the AMAF. The majority of assets for most departments will be:

• infrastructure assets
• plant and equipment
• buildings and land
• ICT assets

All departments affected will be required to submit, as part of 2017/2018 reporting, confirmation of compliance with the mandatory requirements of the AMAF.

This will require all department’s to verify that AMAF requirements are in fact being observed before signing off on their annual report.

What is necessary for compliance with the AMAF?

The effort required will depend on how well asset management is already undertaken. For general guidance you will need to have an Asset Management Strategy that includes, as a minimum:

basic framework – the general classification of assets, including definitions and thresholds, and how this aligns with your department’s services delivery obligations

governance – identifying responsibility for assets throughout the four stages of the typical asset lifecycle

resources and skills – detailing the skills and resources which will be required to maintain your assets, along with a strategy for acquiring and developing those skills and resources

performance monitoring – a system for tracking and reporting on asset performance, with special emphasis on Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

compliance reporting – all reporting measures you adopt which monitor how well your asset management strategy is working

risk management – identification of the risks involved with mission-critical assets, and your ability to provide the services your department is responsible for

Challenges in developing a good Asset Management Strategy

Already some challenges have been identified with establishing a good Asset Management Strategy and these are outlined below, along with possible remedies:

• asset data accuracy – many departments have found their current asset data to be incomplete or out of date. In such cases, a baseline of current data must be established, so gaps can be filled in
• inadequate Asset Management Strategy – some departments have no strategy, or what they have is inadequate for compliance. As with data accuracy, a baseline must be established so that gaps can be identified and corrected
• unclear responsibilities – in many cases, it is unclear where responsibility for assets really lies, since it could be in a number of different areas. As a starting point, use the annual reporting information to establish asset responsibilities
• the difficulty of compliance – because the differential may be large between what your current AMS is, and what it needs to be, your department may have insufficient resources to manage the gap. A plan or strategy must be developed for bridging this gap as soon as possible

Four steps to ensure strategy compliance

It is essential that your asset management strategy is developed to the point where it complies with the requirements of the AMAF framework. These four steps will help you achieve that goal:

• fully assess your present approach to asset management
• identify the gaps between your present approach and where you need to be
• develop a plan for accomplishing all the tasks necessary to manage the identified gaps
• have your plan approved, start the change and remember to communicate the changes

Get started right away!

Whether you have a little work to do or a lot to achieve compliance – don’t put it off!

Get started right away to bring your department under compliance.