The Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles 2024 (CGRPs), outline the requirement that ministers must not approve a grant before receiving written advice from officials on the merits of the proposed grant. It also outlines obligations for ministers relating to recording and reporting.
Written records
Record keeping is important to grant governance, accountability and transparency.
Under the CGRPs ministers must record in writing the basis for:
- the approval of a grant, with reference to the grant opportunity guidelines and the key principle of achieving value with relevant money
- approving a grant that officials have recommended be rejected.
Under the CGRPs, ministers must also record in writing:
- the basis for decisions not to approve a grant that officials have recommended be approved
- any conflicts of interest relating to a decision to approve a grant.
In addition to the requirements in the CGRPs, there are further written record requirements in section 71 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).
Reporting decisions
Under the CGRPs ministers (including parliamentary secretaries, senators and assistant ministers but not including presiding officers) must report to the Minister for Finance on the following decisions:
- a grant approved in their own electorate, except in limited circumstances (CGRP paragraph 4.11)
- a grant approved when officials assessed the proposal as ‘recommended be rejected’ for funding (CGRP paragraph 4.12).
These reports must be provided to the Minister for Finance as soon as practicable following the approval. The Minister for Finance must table copies of these reports in each House of Parliament as soon as practicable after the end of each quarter.
Overview of recording and reporting requirements
The table below provides an overview of recording and reporting requirements for different ministerial decisions.
Officials have advised: | Ministerial decision: | Does the basis for the decision need to be recorded? | Does the decision need to be reported to the Minister for Finance and recorded on GrantConnect? |
|---|---|---|---|
Approve grant | Approve grant | ✓ | Only if in own electorate |
Approve grant | Reject grant | ✓ | X |
Reject grant | Approve grant | ✓ | ✓ |
Reject grant | Reject grant | X | X |
No recommendation | Approve grant | ✓ | Only if in own electorate |
No recommendation | Reject grant | X | X |
Templates to assist with ministerial reporting for grants approved in own electorate and/or grants approved that were recommended be rejected can be found in the Grants Toolkit. These decisions must also be recorded on GrantConnect under “Grant Decisions” as soon as practicable. See Publishing & reporting requirements for more information.
