- Changes to the PGPA Act Flipchart and List - October 2024
- Significant instances of non-compliance with finance law (s19) - reporting reminder
- New Procurement Administration Counter Fraud Toolkit
- 2023-24 Annual Reports – Transparency Portal
- AGOR Quarterly Report - 30 September 2024
- Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles (CGRPs)
- Risk and Insurance – Education
- Risk, Insurance and Legal Liability – Communities of Practice
- Tip of the Month
Changes to the PGPA Act Flipchart and List - October 2024
A new Flipchart and List of Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) Commonwealth entities and companies was issued on 21 October 2024.
In addition to the update made on 1 October 2024, both the Flipchart and List have been updated to reflect the following changes to current Commonwealth entities and companies for the PGPA Act:
Abolition of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Commencement of the Administrative Review Tribunal
On 14 October 2024, the non-corporate Commonwealth entity known as the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was abolished by the Administrative Review Tribunal (Consequential and Transitional Provisions No. 1) Act 2024 and a new non-corporate Commonwealth entity known as the Administrative Review Tribunal was established on the same day by the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024.
Abolition of the National Mental Health Commission
On 30 September 2024, the non-corporate Commonwealth entity known as the National Mental Health Commission was abolished by an amendment to Schedule 1 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014, following the Government’s decision to abolish the entity in the 2024-25 Budget.
Further details on these updates are available in the Table of Changes for 2024-25. Here are the latest versions of the Flipchart and its associated List of Commonwealth entities and companies.
An excel version of the Flipchart is available on the Finance website.
Feedback on the Flipchart and List and how you use these tools is always welcome and can be sent to PGPA@finance.gov.au.
Significant instances of non-compliance with finance law (s19) - reporting reminder
In instances where a significant issue reported to the responsible Minister constitutes non-compliance with the finance law, accountable authorities must also notify the Finance Minister.
- The Finance Minister requires this under section 19(1)(b) of the PGPA Act. This section requires the accountable authority to give the responsible Minister or the Finance Minister any reports, documents and information in relation to the activities of the entity as that Minister requires.
- high volume, high value and/or systemic instances of non-compliance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules or the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles;
- high volume, high value and/or systemic issues reflecting internal control shortcomings (for example, high volume and/or high value non-compliance with internal approval requirements for arrangements and commitments);
- serious fraudulent activity by officials (for example, theft, accounting fraud, making or using false documents);
- serious fraudulent activity by non-officials (for example, independent contractors), reflecting internal control shortcomings; or
- non-compliance issues that have impacted, or are likely to impact, on the entity’s financial sustainability, or likely to be of particular political or public interest.
Finance guidance (see RMG-214) outlines that notifications to the Finance Minister should provide details of remedial action taken. Where remedial action is not adequately explained in the notification, follow-up action by the Finance may be appropriate, or in some cases, by the Finance Minister.
Instances of significant non-compliance reported to the Finance Minister must also be disclosed in entities’ annual reports (PGPA Rule sections 17AG (for non-corporate Commonwealth entities) and 17BE (for corporate Commonwealth entities)).
If you have any questions regarding non-compliance with the finance law, please email us at PGPA@finance.gov.au.
New Procurement Administration Counter Fraud Toolkit
The toolkit:
- features case studies on procurement fraud and corruption
- identifies key risks and red flags of fraud and corruption in each stage of the pre-award procurement process
- provides practical suggestions on prevention and detection measures to mitigate these risks.
2023-24 Annual Reports – Transparency Portal
As we progress through the annual reporting season, entities have begun tabling annual reports in the Parliament.
A reminder that the Tabling Guidelines note an expectation that Annual Reports are tabled prior to the start of the Supplementary Budget Estimates (this year being 4 November 2024) hearings each year and immediately published on the Transparency Portal after tabling occurs. This ensures Annual Reports are available for scrutiny by the relevant Senate standing committee.
Should you require assistance with loading your Annual Report on the Transparency Portal, please contact dar@finance.gov.au.
AGOR Quarterly Report - 30 September 2024
AGOR provides information on the function, composition, origins and other details of Australian Government entities and bodies and is updated on a quarterly basis. The online searchable version of AGOR is located on Directory.gov.au. The Directory is your guide to the structures, organisations and key people in the Australian Government. The Spreadsheet of bodies is also available for download from data.gov.au.
The next Quarterly Report will be available in January 2025.
Please send any questions on AGOR or the datasets to OAR@finance.gov.au.
Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles (CGRPs)
The content that was previously in RMG-412 and RMG-421 has been consolidated and refined in a new RMG-410 Commonwealth Grants.
The new RMG:
- provides an overview of the grants lifecycle and grants administration activities at each stage
- outlines the obligations of officials and minsters, including briefing and reporting requirements
- provides advice on a range of specific issues, including delivering election commitments through grants and evaluation strategies.
A new Estimates Memorandum (EM) 2024-36 – Process for the release of new or revised grant opportunity guidelines – took effect on Monday 21 October 2024 and replaced EM 2019-39.
This new EM applies to all grants under the CGRPs and grants where payments are being made via the states or territories to individuals, organisations and businesses. The EM outlines the processes that Commonwealth entities must follow when seeking agreement to release new or revised Grant Opportunity Guidelines.
If you need a copy of the new EM, please reach out to your internal budget area or email grantguidelines@finance.gov.au.
Risk and Insurance – Education
Enterprise Risk Education
Finance offers enterprise risk education across four different pathways:
- Foundation level: to support all Commonwealth officials understand basic risk management concepts, particularly those new to the APS. This pathway comprises two eLearning courses available through the Comcover Learning Centre.
- Generalist level: to support all Commonwealth officials who are required to engage with and apply their entity’s risks management framework.
- Specialist level: to support Commonwealth officials who are required to design, implement and embed their entity’s risk management framework.
- SES level: to support all SES officers understand and manage risk from a strategic perspective.
The final face-to-face sessions for the General and Specialist pathways for 2024 are:
| Generalist level: Practical risk management | Specialist level: Embedding risk management |
| 31 October (F2F) | 22 October (Day 1) and 3 December (Day 2) (F2F) |
Insurance education
Finance is responsible for managing Comcover, the Australian Government’s self-managed insurance fund. All Commonwealth entities that are subject to the PGPA Act and classified to the General Government Sector are members of the Comcover Fund.
Finance offers induction training to Commonwealth officials who have a role in administering the Comcover insurance arrangements for their entity. This induction training provides an overview of what insurable risks are covered by Comcover, the claims process run reports and how to navigate Comcover’s online portal.
The final face-to-face training session for 2024 will be held on Wednesday, 13 November.
To register please email comcover@comcover.com.au or call 1800 651 540 (option 2).
Risk, Insurance and Legal Liability – Communities of Practice
Finance hosts a number of Communities of Practice to support Commonwealth officials in risk, insurance, and legal roles, to share knowledge and network with counterparts from other Commonwealth entities.
Upcoming Communities of Practice meetings include:
| Meeting | Time and Date | Location |
| Comcover Insurance Community of Practice | 10:00am, Wednesday 20 November 2024 | Virtual |
| Commonwealth Risk Managers Forum | 10.30am, Thursday 21 November 2024 | Virtual |
| Legal Liability Community of Practice | 9.15am, Monday 25 November 2024 | Virtual/F2F |
To register please email comcover@comcover.com.au or call 1800 651 540 (option 2).
Tip of the Month
These RMGs are guidance documents only. An RMG explains the legislation or policy requirements in plain English and provide examples of good practice. RMGs support accountable authorities and officials to apply the intent of the framework.
RMGs are evolving to support a ‘self-help’ environment, enabling stakeholders to interact with information in real time. The guides are available electronically which means they can be updated as required in real time, keeping officials informed of policy and/or legislative amendments quickly.
Need to print or download? RMGs can be downloaded, using the print functionality. This can be done for each web page or the entire RMG. When downloading an RMG it is an officials responsibility to ensure that the digital RMG is monitored regularly for updates.
The index of RMGs can be found on the Finance website. The index allows users to navigate the available guidance quickly and can be sorted alphabetically, by number, or by topic.
Contact us at PGPA@finance.gov.au if you have any questions about the RMGs.
