The Town of Port Hedland council has officially launched a $1 million, two-year “improvement program” dubbed “project uplift”, aimed at strengthening the local authority’s governance.

Councillors voted unanimously to endorse the project uplift implementation plan at their June ordinary council meeting after an “organisational health check” that identified “interconnected” issues across leadership, financial management, procurement and information systems.

It comes after a tumultuous period for the local government authority including governance and issues on the council.

Council officers stressed that investment in the program was “not discretionary,” adding that without the reforms the town would remain exposed to risk and inefficient service delivery.

Project uplift is designed to be delivered in three stages, with phase one already under way and expected to be completed in December.

Phase two would take place between January and July next year, with phase three covering the full final year of the timeframe.

Phase one is due to include an “end-to-end review” of the town’s enterprise resource planning system, or in layman’s terms, the database that stores and helps manage finance, payroll, and records management for the local authority.

It is also set to include the recruitment of a new, “fixed-term director role” to provide “executive-level oversight” of the program, the establishment of a chief executive-led steering group to co-ordinate workstreams and manage interdependencies, in addition to the development of a communications strategy to keep both staff and the community informed of the project’s progress.

Phase two aims to address high-priority issues through the practical implementation of core frameworks and procedures establishing registers and reporting mechanisms across all business functions to strengthen internal discipline.

Phase three focuses on long-term sustainability by aligning internal systems, planning and workforce processes.

At the conclusion of stage three, the town will validate the project’s outcomes before returning to “business as usual”.

The chief executive Dale Stewart holds primary responsibility for the project’s success, with performance KPIs linked to its delivery.

Progress will be monitored using hard metrics, including a reduction in “bypass approvals” and delegation exceptions, as well as improved results in staff culture surveys.

Regular progress reports will be provided to the audit, risk and improvement committee and the council to ensure transparency throughout the transformation.