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 ‐  ʹ ‐ ANAO Report No.11 2014–15 The Award of Grants under the Clean Technology Program 27 were assessed against the merit criteria 35 , 35 were not considered by the program delegate due to the closure of the programs.

35. The

grants administration framework has a particular focus on the establishment of transparent and accountable grant decision‐making processes. In this context, the program delegate accepted all recommendations that were received in terms of those applications that should be awarded funding, and those that should be rejected. However, there were a number of shortcomings in the advice provided to the delegate to inform funding decisions. Specifically:  the records that supported the IA assessment did not demonstrate that each application was assessed against each of the merit criteria;  the advice provided to the delegate did not demonstrate that the recommended applications rated highly against each of the merit criteria; and  the advice to the delegate did not clearly identify the expected outcomes from funding each recommended project. 36 Reporting and Funding Distribution Chapter 6

36. The

departmentʹs website reporting of grants made under the programs was largely consistent with the reporting requirements of the CGGs and associated guidance. Further, the application, assessment and decision‐ making processes for the programs guarded against the award of funding being politicised. ANAO analysis of the distribution of funding awarded under the programs did not identify any political bias. Of note in this respect was that, although the total value of grants to electorates held by the then Government was greater, the approval rate for grants to electorates held by then Opposition was slightly higher. Summary of entity response

37. The

proposed audit report was provided to the department and extracts were provided to the former chairs of the Clean Technology 35 Of the 1171 applications that were received by the department, 102 applications were withdrawn, 61 applications were found to be ineligible and 159 applications were not assessed due to the closure of the programs. 36 The delegate was provided with expected outcomes for 224 applications 28 per cent of applications considered by the delegate. ANAO Report No.11 2014–15 The Award of Grants under the Clean Technology Program