The Scheme for Compensation for Detriment caused by Defective Administration (the CDDA Scheme)
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- What is the CDDA Scheme?
- Who has the authority to make decisions?
- When are compensation payments made?
- What is defective administration?
- What is detriment?
- Who can apply for compensation?
- How do I apply?
- Links to other agencies
- Further information
What is the CDDA Scheme?
The CDDA Scheme allows Government agencies to compensate persons who have experienced detriment as a result of an agency’s defective actions or inaction.
The CDDA Scheme is available to provide a remedy for all Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (FMA Act) agencies. List of FMA Act agencies.
Payments made under the CDDA Scheme are discretionary. This means there is no automatic entitlement to a payment.
Who has the authority to make decisions?
The CDDA Scheme is an administrative, not a statutory (legislative) scheme. It has been established under the executive power of section 61 of the Constitution.
Portfolio Ministers have responsibility for decisions made under the CDDA Scheme. Ministers may also authorise departmental officers to make decisions.
The Department of Finance and Deregulation only provides policy advice on the CDDA Scheme.
When are compensation payments made?
Payments made under the CDDA Scheme are discretionary. This means there is no automatic entitlement to a payment. They may be made by the relevant portfolio Minister or authorised officer if a Government officer or agency has directly caused an applicant to experience detriment as a result of defective administration.
The CDDA Scheme is generally an avenue of last resort and is used only where there is no other viable avenue to provide redress.
What is defective administration?
Defective administration is defined as:
- a specific and unreasonable lapse in complying with existing administrative procedures; or
- an unreasonable failure to institute appropriate administrative procedures; or
- an unreasonable failure to give to (or for) an applicant, the proper advice that was within the officer's power and knowledge to give (or reasonably capable of being obtained by the officer to give); or
- giving advice to (or for) an applicant that was, in all the circumstances, incorrect or ambiguous.
What is detriment?
Detriment means quantifiable financial loss that an applicant has suffered.
There are three types of detriment:
- detriment relating to a personal injury including mental injury (personal injury loss);
- economic detriment that is not related to a personal injury (pure economic loss); and
- detriment relating to damage to property.
Who can apply for compensation?
Any individual, company or other organisation can apply for compensation, either for themselves or for an authorised third party.
How do I apply?
Claims are made in writing to the Australian Government agency to which your compensation claim relates. The Australian Government Online Directory [
] provides contact details for all Government departments and agencies.
Your application should address:
- the criteria for determining defective administration;
- explain how the actions or inactions were defective;
- provide details of the detriment being claimed, including an explanation of how the amount claimed is calculated; and
- explain how the defective administration directly caused the loss.
Please include all relevant evidence in support of your application e.g. correspondence between yourself and the relevant Government agency, medical certificates etc.
Links to other agencies
To assist you, information on the CDDA Scheme or complaints handling provided by some agencies can be found below.
- Australian Customs and Border Protection Service []
- Australian Federal Police []
- Australian Taxation Office []
- Centrelink []
- Child Support Agency []
- Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (including Australian Quarantine Inspection Service) []
- Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency []
- Department of Defence []
- Department of Human Services:
- Department of Health and Ageing []
- Department of Immigration and Citizenship []
- Medicare Australia []
Further information
More detailed information on the CDDA Scheme can be found in Attachment A of Finance Circular 2009/09.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has produced a factsheet on the CDDA Scheme which can be found at http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/docs/fact-sheets/FactSheet9_CDDA.pdf [] .
Contact for information on this page: sfc@finance.gov.au