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6. Reporting and Funding Distribution
This chapter examines compliance with relevant grant reporting obligations and
analyses the distribution of funding.
Introduction
6.1 The
Commonwealth’s grants administration framework addresses the distribution
of funding awarded under grant programs and includes various reporting
obligations in relation to approved grants. In this context, ANAO examined
the website reporting of approved grants and the distribution of funding
awarded under the programs.
Grant reporting
6.2 Website
reporting of individual grants was introduced by the Australian
Government to promote transparency and accountability.
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At the time
that the program delegate made the majority of funding decisions, the requirement
to publish information on individual grants was set out in the 2009
version of the CGGs. The CGGs required that each agency publish information
on individual grants on its website no later than seven working days
after the funding agreement for the grant took effect. These reporting obligations
were updated in the CGGs issued in June 2013, with the main change
being an extension of the timeframe for agencies to publish information on
their websites from seven to 14 days. The department advised ANAO in October
2014 that: Over
the life of the program there were 25 breaches recorded as part of the Certificate
of Compliance process where the reporting was not undertaken within
the 7 or 14 day period out of a total of 603 applications.
6.3 In
addition to timely reporting, it is also important to publish consistent information
on grants. This matter was highlighted in the July 2008 report of the
Strategic Review of the Administration of Australian Government Grant Programs.
The information to be reported for each grant, and a template to be used
for reporting purposes was outlined in Finance Circular 200904 Grants— Reporting
Requirements released in June 2009 and Finance Circular 201302
142 Mr Peter Grant PSM, Strategic Review of the Administration of Australian Government Grant Programs, 31 July 2008, p. 10.
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Australian Government Grants: Briefing and Reporting released in May 2013. The
mandatory data fields that must be populated by agencies when publishing
grant details include grant recipient, value inclusive of GST, approval or
commencement date, grant term, location and postcode.
6.4 ANAO
compared the information reported on the department’s website
with information in submitted applications and executed funding agreements.
This analysis confirmed that the grant information relating to ‘grant
funding location’ and ‘postcode’ reported on the department’s website was
accurate in most instances, except for:
five applications for which the head office address was reported; and
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applications which involved projects at multiple locations.
6.5 In
this respect, Finance Circulars 200904 and 201302 both required the ‘grant
funding location’ to describe the area where funding is to be used. For grants
that are provided to multiple locations, details are required that best describe
the area where funding is to be provided, such as Riverina, NSW or national.
6.6 As
was required by the CGGs, the department’s website reporting related
to the signing of funding agreements rather than the award of individual
grants. In this respect, the most common method of reporting used by
the department was to report the date that the funding agreement was executed
as the commencement date and the project end date in place of the grant
term, as shown in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: Grant reporting
Source: ANAO analysis of
departmental records
.
6.7 In
March 2013, the department was advised by Finance that, as long as the
total duration for example, the start and end dates was provided in the website
reporting of grants, the grant end date would suffice. However, in the department’s
website reporting:
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