PGPA Newsletter 64

A new Flipchart of PGPA Act Commonwealth entities and companies was issued on 4 January 2021.

The Flipchart has been updated to reflect the establishment of the Office of the Special Investigator as a new non-corporate Commonwealth entity.

Further detail on this update is available in the Table of Changes for 2020-21. Here are the latest versions of the Flipchart and its associated List of Commonwealth entities and companies. 

Feedback on the Flipchart and List and how you use these tools are always welcome and can be sent to PGPA@finance.gov.au.

The new Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Finance Minister to Accountable Authorities of Non-Corporate Commonwealth Entities) Delegation 2021 has been made by the Finance Minister. The new delegation instrument commenced on 1 February 2021. 

The new delegation instrument repeals and replaces the delegation made by the previous Finance Minister, the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Finance Minister to Accountable Authorities of Non-Corporate Commonwealth Entities) Delegation 2014.

The only changes in the new Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Finance Minister to Accountable Authorities of Non-Corporate Commonwealth Entities) Delegation 2021 instrument are to the title of the instrument and changes to entity names to recognise MoG changes that have occurred since the last delegation amendment.

The new delegation instrument can be found on the Finance website page PGPA legislation, associated instruments and policies.

Where accountable authorities have sub-delegated powers delegated by the Finance Minister under the previous delegation, accountable authorities will need to make new sub-delegations based on the new delegation instrument.

Please contact PGPA@finance.gov.au if you have any queries.

The Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines 2017 (CGRGs) require all Ministers to report to the Finance Minister annually, on all instances where they have approved a grant that the relevant official recommended be rejected (paragraph 4.12). Similarly, under Division 6A of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 (PGPA Rule), Ministers have annual reporting requirements, where a Minister approves the making of a CCE grant that was recommended not be made by the relevant corporate Commonwealth entity (section 25E). 

Ministers must report by 31 March each year for decisions made in the preceding calendar year, so 1 January to 31 December 2020. As Division 6A of the PGPA Rule commenced on 1 December 2020, it is only for the month of December 2020 that Ministers are required to report relevant decisions to make CCE grants.

An Order of Continuing Effect for the production of documents (Senate Order) relating to annual Ministerial reporting requirements for grants was agreed by the Senate on 13 May 2020. The Senate Order requires the Minister for Finance to table, by 30 April each year, all reports and correspondence received during the preceding year (under paragraph 4.12 of the CGRGs) as well as a summary of those decisions. This Senate Order will apply to the annual reports provided by Ministers in accordance with the CGRGs during the last calendar year and does not relate to reports made by Ministers under the PGPA Rule. 

For further information on grant reporting requirements for Ministers, please contact the Grants Policy Team at grants@finance.gov.au.

To help entities better understand the Commonwealth grants process, Finance has produced a webpage “Grants – Getting Started” to provide information on the grants process, including links to:

• a decision tree tool to assist entities in determining what the financial arrangement may be in their circumstance; and, if a grant,
• a template wizard to help determine which template to use to develop grant opportunity guidelines.

This new webpage is for anyone new or who may want a refresher on Commonwealth grants administration and is designed to provide the key steps involved with grants administration, plus provide more transparency around the grant process. 

The webpage “Grants – Getting Started” can be found here.

The 2021 Comcover Risk Management Benchmarking Survey is now open and will be available to entities from 1 February to 12 March 2021. The revised Benchmarking Survey implements key recommendations from The Independent Review into the operation of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and will assess entities’ risk management maturity against five areas of focus, which are centred on building risk resilience in the Commonwealth.

In 2021, entities’ results will include an enhanced reporting capability that provides the opportunity to reflect on how risk is managed in entities in comparison to other Commonwealth entities. It will also allow entities to prioritise their resources to improving capability (where identified) and track progress against their target risk maturity.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact comcover@comcover.com.au or call 1800 651 540 and select Option 4.

In addition to the Benchmarking Survey, the 2021 Comcover Education Program is also now open for enrolments. Comcover’s risk education program has been developed to target four levels of desired capability for Australian Public Service officials:   

• Foundation – Encourages all Commonwealth officials, regardless of level or role to understand the basic risk management concepts of how risk is managed in the Commonwealth;
• Generalist – Supports Commonwealth officials, regardless of level, whose role requires them to engage with and apply their entity's risk management framework to successfully deliver outcomes;
• Specialist – Assists job role specialists who are required to design, implement and embed an entity's risk management framework. Specialists facilitate generalists and executives to fulfil their risk management responsibilities; and
• Senior Executive Service – Helps inform SES to recognise key and emerging risk management issues and demonstrate risk leadership by fostering a positive risk culture in their entity and across the Commonwealth.

In 2021, Comcover is also conducting virtual workshops that are accessible to everyone located anywhere, as well as face to face workshops.

To enrol in the workshops and access more Comcover education opportunities please visit the Comcover Learning Centre at here or call 1800-651-540 and select Option 2.  

An online GovTEAMS session is being scheduled to discuss the results of the 2019-20 Annual Report Reporting Feedback sought through annual report coordination team members in December 2020 via a feedback form. The session will also discuss what is in store for 2020-21.

Keep a lookout for the recently posted news in the Digital Annual Report Team's GovTEAMS community. An email to Annual Report Coordinators will also be issued providing further details.

The Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre (the Centre) is running four executive level (EL1/EL2) workshops on leading practice in fraud risk assessment for Commonwealth officials between February and May 2021.  These workshops complement the Centre’s Leading Practice Guide in Fraud Risk Assessment.  

The workshops will focus on implementing best practice fraud risk assessments across entities and will cover:

• core foundations for fraud risk assessment
• the co-design of fraud countermeasures
• the importance of reporting, monitoring and review in fraud risk management.

The workshops will also provide hands-on instruction on strategic fraud risk profiling and contemporary approaches to identifying fraud risks.

The workshops will be held at the Attorney-General’s Department (3-5 National Circuit, Barton, Canberra) and each workshop will run for three and a half hours and include a complimentary morning tea. Please note that you will only need to register for one date as all workshops address the same content.

Dates:

• Workshop 1: 25-Feb-2021, 9am-12:30pm
• Workshop 2: 23-Mar-2021, 9am-12:30pm
• Workshop 3: 29-Apr-2021, 9am-12:30pm
• Workshop 4: 18-May-2021, 9am-12:30pm

Please register your attendance via the Centre’s Eventbrite page using your Australian Government email address. 

Registration is essential, a maximum of 24 participants will be able to attend each workshop.

Did you know that the Flipchart of PGPA Act Commonwealth entities and companies is interactive? Clicking on the name of each entity on the Flipchart will take you to their webpage. The latest Flipchart can be found here.