Overall, Grant Assessment and Selection

ANAO Report No.10 2014–15 Administration of the Biodiversity Fund Program 68  the project was considered of high quality and represented strong value for money; and  in addition, funding consideration had to be made to the proposed expenditure in the out‐years of the program.

4.27 The

ANAO’s review of the reserve list found that the 18 selected projects ranged in score from 7.5 to 8.0. 94 There were 12 projects on the reserve list that were ranked higher than 8.0, but were not selected. Records retained by the department, including the Addendum to the Moderation Group report that was provided to the Minister, do not indicate the basis on which the 18 projects were selected in preference to other higher scoring applications on the reserve list. Improved documentation of this process would have enhanced the department’s ability to demonstrate that the most meritorious applications, having regard to the program’s objectives, were recommended for funding. Assessing eligibility

4.28 It

is important that grant assessment and selection processes apply the eligibility criteria that have been communicated to potential grant recipients. In this respect, it is advisable and the usual practice to confirm the compliance of each application with the eligibility criteria as the first stage of the assessment process. This ensures that non‐eligible applications are excluded from further consideration and limited resources are not expended on merit assessing applications that are subsequently found to be ineligible.

4.29 In

the case of the Biodiversity Fund program, Environment conducted the eligibility assessment for applications at the conclusion of the selection process rather than at the beginning, assessing only those applications that were likely to receive funding. 95 Environment decided on this approach because of the large number of applications received for Round 1 over 1500. Delaying the eligibility assessment meant that the number of applications the department was required to assess for eligibility in this round was reduced to around 300. Nevertheless, all applications were subject to merit assessment, 94 There were 134 projects on the reserve list, scoring from 7.5 to 9.33. The 18 selected projects included one from Western Australia and one from Victoria, and three from Queensland. The selection did not include any of the three Indigenous projects on the reserve list. 95 Environment advised the ANAO that eligibility checking occurred concurrently with the assessment of applications. While this was the case for a number of eligibility criteria that could be confirmed via the information provided in the application form for example, the location of the project within Australia’s