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ANAO Report No.11 2014–15 The Award of Grants under the Clean Technology Program
71
that applications competed for the available funding. Rather, so long as they
were assessed as eligible and as having some merit, and sufficient program
funding remained available, they were approved for funding.
2.79 The
decision to establish the program was based on advice that funding would
not be provided for projects that were intended to be undertaken privately
in the absence of the programs. However, there were no mechanisms in
place to prevent the approval of funding for an application that an applicant had
committed to or was largely complete at the time of application. In this respect,
there were 134 funding agreements with grants totalling 45 million where
the funding agreement was signed either after the reported project end date,
or within three months of the reported project end date.
2.80 The
department provided committee members with an assessment template
to facilitate the assessment of applications, however, the only records retained
by the department were the final merit score and recommendation. In this
context, an IA committee chair has advised ANAO that, in deciding which applications
to recommend, the committee took into account a range of objective
and subjective matters which were not reflected in the records of the assessment
process. In the absence of records being made and retained that reflected
the assessment of applications against the published criteria and the additional
matters considered by the IA committees, the basis for the funding recommendations
made to the program delegate was not evident. Of particular
note was that, for 58 per cent of the applications that were assessed by
the IA committees, the documentation available did not provide a clear basis
for the recommendations that were made.
80
2.81 Performance
reporting for the programs to date has aggregated the number
of projects with an expected reduction in carbon emissions intensity of at
least five per cent. This approach however, does not reflect actual outcomes, but
expected outcomes which, in turn, could relate to one of three different approaches
to calculating emissions intensity reductions
81
. In addition, the
five per cent target set for the reduction in carbon emissions intensity did not
reflect that the outcome set in the Clean Energy Future Plan to reduce
emissions by five per cent was from year 2000 levels. Specifically, based on
2010 emissions levels, the reduction required was in the order of 16 per cent.
80 See Figure 2.3 on page 63. A clear basis for the recommendations was not provided for 486 of the
833 applications that were only considered by an IA committee and not the Board of IA. 81
A site-wide, process or equipment boundary as discussed in paragraph 2.75.
ANAO Report No.11 2014–15 The Award of Grants under the Clean Technology Program
72
Recommendation No.1
2.82 To
improve the design of, and governance arrangements for, future grant
programs, ANAO recommends that the Department of Industry: a
develops a single set of program guidelines that is approved in
accordance with the grant program approval requirements;
b includes,
as an eligibility criterion, a requirement that excludes projects that
are largely complete, or would otherwise proceed, without Australian
Government funding, in circumstances where government intends
not to fund such projects; c
ensures that the basis for recommendations to the program delegate is
appropriately documented, with documentation retained by the
department; and
d develops
performance indicators that align with broader government policy
outcomes.
Department of Industry’s response:
2.83 Part
a: Agreed in‐principle. For future grant programmes the Department of Industry
will consider this aspect as part of programme design.
2.84 Part
b: Agreed. The department notes in adopting such a criterion that this would
not exclude circumstances where value for money can be achieved by bringing forward
the timing of the funded activity where this is consistent with the policy intent.
2.85 Part
c: Agreed.
2.86 Part
d: Agreed.
