Appropriations and cash
The Constitution, under sections 81 and 83, specifies that:
- all revenues or moneys raised or received by the Commonwealth shall form one Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), to be appropriated for the purposes of the Commonwealth, in the manner prescribed by the Constitution
- no money is to be drawn from the CRF except under an appropriation made by law.
The CRF is a notional concept, established in section 81 of the Constitution, to represent all Commonwealth money.
Example
Money that forms the CRF includes:
- all money held in bank accounts operated by non-corporate Commonwealth entities (NCEs) (in Australia and overseas)
- money held in the OPA Group
- money kept on an NCE's premises
- any money received on behalf of the Commonwealth
- other CRF money – held by an agent, for and on behalf of the Commonwealth.
Drawing money from the CRF without a valid appropriation in law would breach the Constitution. An appropriation is an entitlement in an Act for the government to spend money. When an appropriation is provided, it is:
- expressed in terms of expenditure for specific purposes
- managed by NCEs to make payments for the specified purposes on behalf of the government and to pay for their own operating expenses.
Records of appropriations and money collected by the NCE are maintained in CBMS, by the relevant NCE and Finance.
Other CRF Money
Sometimes the most effective and efficient way for an NCE to achieve its purposes will be to enter into an arrangement with a person outside the Commonwealth to use or manage money that belongs to the Commonwealth, for and on behalf of the Commonwealth. In this situation, the person acts as an agent of the Commonwealth and they are not directly subject to the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) or Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014.
An agent receives and holds money that belongs to the Commonwealth, generally for short periods of time, before remitting that money to the Commonwealth. Money held by an agent, for and on behalf of the Commonwealth:
forms part of the CRF for the purposes of section 81 of the Constitution
is referred to, at section 105 of the PGPA Act, as ‘other CRF money’.
