Gift of the G.A.B - August 2024
(Grants Admin Bulletin) |
Before you start: contact the Grants Front Door Portal. They'll get the right people together to talk to you about what you need.
FUSION Decision to Execution (D2E)
The FUSION Decision to Execution (D2E) module is an end-to-end process for creating and tracking funding decisions for our Agency. It simplifies the funding decision process and provides automated workflows for related financial, grants administration and engagement tasks.
Transparent tracking of funding decision/s and agreement negotiations enables funding agreement acceptance to be recorded and reported. This enables consistency and compliance with legislative and Agency requirements.
Therefore, all grant funding decisions MUST have a funding brief drafted and approved in the module - The only exception to this are briefs requiring Ministerial approval.
Grants Administration Audit The ANAO has published an Audit Insights paper on Grants Administration Grants Administration | Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). The design and planning, advice to decision makers and assessment phase were thematically the areas which they have made the most recommendations for improvements in the last five years; with GOGs, monitoring and KPIs following closely behind. They've also put together some interesting case studies. Click the link above to learn more!!
Retrospective agreements
NIAA officials must take all necessary steps to manage arrangements to ensure work under an arrangement does not commence until a signed contract or agreement is in place, as required under the NIAA Accountable Authority Instructions (AAIs).
Aside from being a breach of the AAIs, agreements with a retrospective Project Start Date carry legal risk and are difficult to enforce, which is why the Corporate and Commercial Law Team strongly advises that all Project Agreements should be executed before the Project Start Date. The decision to backdate an agreement must be thoroughly detailed and captured. However, we acknowledge that it’s sometimes necessary and we need to tread carefully and be sure we’re doing it for the right reasons. This must be done with the relevant delegate approval and in partnership with Grants Guidance and the Corporate and Commercial Law Team. The Corporate and Commercial Law Team have also indicated a preference to review all draft project schedules which include a retrospective clause to ensure their correct application. The GMU will need to work with the Corporate and Commercial Law Team if the funding delegate has agreed to the use of the clause.
Please contact the Grants Front Door for more information. |
Why do we assess the ratio of an entity’s Current Assets and Current Liabilities As part of the Organisation Risk Profile (ORP), an assessment is made of the organisation’s Governance, Financial Management and Service Delivery. The purpose of Question 2 “Is the asset to liability ratio below 1”? in the Financial Management section is to determine if the organisation has any solvency risk issues which could affect how Commonwealth funds are used (or could be misused); and whether the organisation is sufficiently well placed to continue operating and delivering the grant activity. In general, a higher ratio is a good indicator of the organisation’s ability to repay debts or take on additional debt to support new opportunities. A lower ratio indicates a substantial dependence on debt and could be a sign of financial weakness.
Where possible, we should use the current asset to liability ratio or the total ratio if that’s all that’s available. Information to support a current ratio is often the most common data available (not every organisation is required to prepare audited financial statements – some only do financial declarations which often only have current assets and liabilities). We do see both current and total ratios used in ORPs due to data availability (and both on rare occasions, which is very helpful). What tends to be of more value than just the ratio, is how the ratio (current or total) moves over time, especially for high risk ORPs.
Please note, if an organisation has a ratio of below 0.8, please check how much the NIAA funds them or is expected to fund them. If it’s over $500k per annum, then please seek a financial viability check, by sending an email to Compliance@niaa.gov.au along with the organisation’s financial statements. It is also appropriate to seek a financial viability assessment when providers receive (or are expected to receive) less than this financial threshold, but their asset to liability ratio is very low (e.g. below 0.5).
All resources are available on
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Upcoming Grant Opportunities with other agencies Attention Regional and Program staff: Each month we will promote any new GOGs released (including by other agencies) and published on Grant Connect that may be relevant to your stakeholders. Registering on Grant Connect is easy :) This month there are three new GOGs, details below GO ID: GO5214 Primary Category: 251002 – Indigenous Communities The objectives of the PBC Capacity Building Grant are to: 1.Increase the capacity of PBCs to take advantage of economic opportunities 2.Build long-term organisational capacity within PBCs through training and obtaining professional expertise 3.Support effective native title agreement-making Close Date: 30 June 2025
GO ID: GO5658 Title: Community Child Care Fund Restricted (CCCFR) non-competitive grant opportunity (for specified services) Agency: Department of Education Primary Category: 251003 – Indigenous Education Description: The funding announced to expand the CCCFR program will include the establishment of up to 20 new early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in mainly remote communities. Additional funding of $29.9 million over 4 years has been allocated for this expansion, on top of approximately $55 million per annum expended in the existing CCCFR program. Close Date: 30 June 2025
GO ID: GO5900 Title: Local Investments Funding Grant Opportunity Primary Category: 251002 – Indigenous Communities Description: The Local Investments Funding Grant Opportunity enables strategic and rapid response to address local issues to benefit First Nations people and facilitate improved community and government engagement. The objective of a Local Investments Funding grant is to deliver outcomes, aligned to community needs government priorities and Closing the Gap targets by providing funding of no more than $100,000 (GST exclusive) for: generally small scale, short-term, one-off proposals to address immediate local need and which have community support; a variety of activities, ranging from small scale infrastructure and cultural activities, through to a co-contribution to larger projects; and Activities that leverage other government funding and may include co-contributions for larger projects with other governments, local councils or organisations. Closing Date: 30 June 2025 |
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