The Environment In Establishment and Management of Funding Agreements

ANAO Report No.10 2014–15 Administration of the Biodiversity Fund Program 94 arrangements were in place for the first two reports. 133 Since December 2013, all grant recipients have been required to report using a new online reporting tool MERIT.

6.35 The

Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement Tool MERIT is an online reporting tool through which the Biodiversity Fund program mid‐year and annual reports are to be submitted by grant recipients. Information from MERIT is to be collated by Environment to inform MERI reporting on the achievement of program outcomes as discussed in Chapter 2. 134 Environment also intends to make most project‐level information publicly available on MERIT, to allow for successes and lessons learned to be shared between projects and programs.

6.36 The

use of MERIT was mandatory for the 21 NATI and Round 2 funded projects, and ‘strongly encouraged’ for all 313 Round 1 projects. 135 Environment conducted some stakeholder consultation in developing the tool 136 , and provided information to grant recipients ahead of the launch, including email newsletters, user guides and a Frequently Asked Questions page. While online training videos were also planned, this did not eventuate. Methodologies for standardising reporting

6.37 The

effectiveness of the MERI Framework is dependent on the information collected from individual projects being aggregated to allow for reporting on achievements at the program level. To facilitate this aggregation, the information must be uniform as far as possible and based on scientifically ‐accepted methodologies. All Biodiversity Fund program Round 2 and NATI projects are required to collect and report ecological monitoring data for example, measurement of native and exotic ground cover, evidence of fauna, over‐story and mid‐story projected crown cover in accordance with either a methodology specifically developed for the Biodiversity Fund 133 That is, the 2012–13 mid-year due February 2013 and 2012–13 annual report due August 2013. 134 As at October 2014, MERIT is being used to collect data from the Biodiversity Fund program all rounds, and Caring for Our Country Targeted Area Grants and Regional Delivery grants, Reef Rescue and Community Environment Grants programs. 135 A small number of Round 1 users whose projects were due to finish and were meeting their final reporting requirements were permitted to submit their reports in the previous format, and departmental grant managers then entered this information into MERIT on the funding recipient’s behalf. 136 Environment commenced development of MERIT in April 2013 in conjunction with a contracted provider, who also hosts the website. In OctoberNovember 2013, Environment conducted a series of information workshops in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for a selection of grant recipients, including testing MERIT. The department informed the ANAO that feedback from these workshops was used to refine the system.