Schedule 3: Reports and Reviews

This Schedule of the Standard Funding Agreement sets out the accountability and reporting requirements for the agreement.

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Contents: Schedule 3

• Heading
• Item 1: Reports and Documentation
• Item 2: Financial Reports
• Item 3: Performance Report
• Item 4: Annual Review

Schedule 3

REPORTS AND REVIEWS

[Comment: There are routine obligations that an organisation needs to meet as part of the agreement's accountability mechanisms.]

Item 1. Reports and Documentation

[Comment: Item 1 is providing a copy of your annual report. Annual reports, enclosing financial statements, are usually generated because of your obligations under the Associations Incorporation Act or the Corporations Act. Organisations also add other information to annual reports which describe their activities for the reporting period.

A useful aspect of the new agreement is that this can be timed to coincide with the sign-off by your organisation's board so that you don't have an artificially imposed time line that may create unintended difficulties. As a matter of good practice and to comply with legislative requirements, this will be within 6 months of the end of financial year.

If you have more than one agreement, or service, it is useful to try and align reporting timeframes and information requirements. Greater coordination is now happening within ACT government, agreements are being bundled within departments by using multiple schedules, and reports to the same funding department are increasingly being presented in shared formats.

A lot of the schedules have spaces for things to be included if they are relevant to your organisation. If it doesn't seem clear whether things apply when you are looking at the standard agreement, it might mean it is not relevant.]

(1) The Organisation will provide the Territory with the annual report required by law to be produced, within one month of its adoption by the Organisation.

(2) [INSERT OTHER IF REQUIRED]

Item 2. Financial Reports

[Comment: generally financial and other reports will be submitted half yearly. Some funding programs, like HACC, may require quarterly reports. In other circumstances an organisation may be asked to provide more frequent reports if the funding body believes the organisation is experiencing difficulties that may affect its viability and its capacity to provide a service.]

The Organisation will provide the Territory with:

(1) quarterly/half [DELETE AS APPROPRIATE] yearly in the form attached and marked "Attachment A" [INSERT DETAILS eg within 30 days of 31 December and 30 June each year OR within 30 days of 31 December for each year of the Agreement]; and

(2) financial report by 30 November in each year of the Agreement Period and by 30 November of the first year after the end of the Agreement Period, comprising:

(a) a cash/financial statement as at the end of the Agreement Period providing full details of expenditure of the Funding Amount, and

(b) an audit report, prepared by a qualified accountant who is not an office holder or employee of the Organisation and who is a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants or the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, which audit report will include an opinion as to whether the Funding Amount has been expended in the manner required by this Agreement; and

(3) receipts and other evidence relating to the expenditure of the Funding Amount if requested by the Territory.

Item 3. Performance Report

[Comment: this is the report detailing what you have agreed to do in Schedule 2 under items 3 to 6.]

The Organisation will submit Performance Reports, which will:

(1) meet the following information and frequency requirements:

(a) Section 1

Report Against Output and Performance Indicators as specified in Items 3 and 4 Schedule 2, to be provided to the Territory on a [SPECIFY if quarterly or half yearly basis] within [INSERT DETAILS eg 30 days] of the end of the [SPECIFY e.g. quarter on 30 September 2004, 31 December 2004, 31 March 2005, 30 June 2005 or half yearly on 30 June and 31 December 2005],

(b) Section 2

Evidence of meeting Performance Requirements specified in Item 5 Schedule 2 and any generic requirements specified in Item 6 Schedule 2 and Schedule 6, to be provided to the Territory once each 12 months of the Agreement Period [NOTE - Territory must specify if required more than once],

(c) Section 3

Planning and policy, implications, in which the Organisation may notify the Territory about and provide information on:

(i) new or unmet needs,

(ii) service gaps,

(iii) innovations in service delivery,

(iv) suggestions for policy change,

(v) system issues;

may be provided to the Territory at least once each 12 months of the Agreement Period; and

[Comment: if systemic or policy issues arise more often than the 12 monthly timeframe allowed in the contract, it is still okay to raise them. The agreement is about more than strict compliance, it is a tool for building and maintaining a relationship.]

(2) be in the format attached and marked "Attachment B" [AND REFER TO ANY OTHER RELEVANT ATTACHMENTS eg. and "Attachment D"].

Item 4. Annual Review

Item 4. ANNUAL REVIEW

[Comment: many funding bodies already undertake an activity of this kind. It is designed to address any concerns and to maintain a good two way understanding of the partnership and its expectations. It may also provide a useful occasion to flag any areas of unmet need that may require more strategic government action.]

Each year, within 3 months after the anniversary of the commencement of the Agreement Period, the Territory's and Organisation's Agreement Managers (and such other persons invited by either Agreement Manager) will meet to review the Agreement and the performance of the Services ("review") except in the final year of the Agreement Period where the Review will be conducted at least three months before the end of the Agreement Period.


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