As The The In

ANAO Report No.11 2014–15 The Award of Grants under the Clean Technology Program 24 published criteria. In these cases, the departmental assessors often made changes to the project or the information in the application 28 by:  adjusting the project, or claims made in the application, themselves and seeking agreement from the applicant to the changes; or  advising the applicant to exclude components of their project that were not considered competitive.

28. The

approach adopted for the programs went well beyond clarifying information included in applications and seeking to address any minor information missing from applications. More broadly, combining advisory and assessment roles is an approach not well suited to maintaining an objective assessment of competing applications. In this context, where government decides that an advisory role should be performed in addition to the assessment of applications, it is preferable that a clear separation be maintained between the roles so as to maintain the objectivity of the assessment stage. There are also challenges that arise in treating applicants equitably due to the risk that the level of assistance provided to applicants will vary. 29 Reduction in Emissions Chapter 4

29. Consistent

with the program objective, the extent of the reduction in carbon emissions intensity associated with projects was the most highly weighted of the merit criteria. There were two indicators used to assess eligible applications against this criterion see Table S.2. A Carbon and Energy Savings Calculator was developed to calculate results for the two indicators for individual projects and a carbon scoring tool was developed to promote consistent scoring against both indicators for this criterion. 28 These processes undertaken by departmental assessors were not foreshadowed in the program guidelines. 29 In this respect, in May 2013 the department implemented a streamlined approach for applications that sought less than 300 000 in grant funds, which afforded those applicants less opportunity to provide additional information in support of their application than those seeking greater amounts of funding.   ANAO Report No.11 2014–15 The Award of Grants under the Clean Technology Program