Appendix 3 - Guidelines
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
The requirements for departmental annual reports are
included in the Requirements for Departmental Annual Reports, Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, May 1999, and also in sections 7 and 25 of
the Public Service Act 1922. The sections of this Act which specify the
requirements in regard to timeliness of annual reports are reproduced below.
Section 25
(6) Subject to subsections (8A) and (8B), the Secretary of a
Department must, as soon as practicable after 30 June in each year, and in any
event not later than 15 October in that year, prepare and give to the Minister
administering the Department a report on the operation of the Department during
the year that ended on that 30 June.
(8) Subject to subsection (8C), the Minister administering a
Department must cause a copy of a report given to him or her under subsection
(6) to be laid before each House of the Parliament on or before 31 October in
the year in which the report is given.
COMMONWEALTH AUTHORITIES AND COMPANIES
The Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997
contains detailed rules about reporting and accountability for Commonwealth
authorities and Commonwealth companies. Commonwealth companies also must meet
other reporting requirements as set out in Corporations Law.
Relevant sections of the Commonwealth Authorities and
Companies Act 1997 for annual reports are set out below.
Part 3 – Reporting and other obligations for Commonwealth
authorities
Schedule1, Part 3, Division 1, Section 7
Section 7 Meaning of Commonwealth Authority
- In this Act,
Commonwealth authority means either of the following kinds of body that holds
money on its own account:
- a body corporate
that is incorporated for a public purpose by an Act;
- a body corporate that
is incorporated for a public purpose by:
- regulations under an Act; or
- an Ordinance of an external Territory (other than Norfolk Island) or
regulations under such an Ordinance;
and is prescribed for the
purposes of this paragraph by regulations under this Act.
Schedule1, Part 3, Division 2, Section 9
Section 9 Directors must prepare annual report
- The
directors of a Commonwealth authority must:
- prepare
an annual report in accordance with Schedule 1 for each financial year; and
- give it to
the responsible Minister by the deadline for the financial year
The deadline is the 15th
day of the 4th month after the end of the financial year.
- The
responsible Minister must table the report in each House of the Parliament as
soon as practicable.
Note: The Acts Interpretation Act 1901 limits
the term ‘as soon as practicable’ to 15 sitting days from receipt (s.34C(3)).
Part 4 – Reporting and other obligations for Commonwealth
companies
Schedule1, Part 4, Division 1, Section 34
Section 34 Meaning of Commonwealth company and wholly
owned Commonwealth company
- In this
Act, Commonwealth company means a Corporations Law company in which the
Commonwealth has a controlling interest.
However, it does not include a
company in which the Commonwealth has a controlling interest through one or
more interposed Commonwealth authorities or Commonwealth companies.
- In this
Act, wholly-owned Commonwealth company means any Commonwealth company, other
than a company any of the shares in which are beneficially owned by a person
other than the Commonwealth.
Schedule1, Part 4, Division 2, Section 36
Section 36 Annual Report
(1) At least
14 days before each annual general meeting, a Commonwealth company must give
the responsible Minister: (a) a copy of the company's annual report that
includes the company's annual general meeting documents (or, if there is no
such annual report, a copy of the company's annual general meeting documents);
and (b) any additional report under subsection
For this purpose, annual general
meeting documents means the documents relating to a financial year that the
company is required by the Corporations Law to lay before its annual general
meeting.
(4) If the
Commonwealth company is a wholly-owned Commonwealth company, the responsible
Minister must table the documents in each House of the Parliament as soon as practicable
after receiving them. In all other cases, the Minister must table the documents
in each House of the Parliament as soon as practicable after the annual general
meeting of the company.
Schedule1, Part 1, Section 1
Part 1 - Contents of annual report
Section 1 Summary of contents
The annual report must include:
- a report of operations, prepared by the directors in accordance with the
Fiance Minister’s Orders; and
- financial statements, prepared by the directors under clause 2 of this
Schedule; and
- the Auditor-General’s report on those financial statements, prepared
under Part 2 of this Schedule and addressed to the responsible Minister.
Note:
The report may include other matters, for example, matters that are required by
another Act or by Ministerial guidelines.
NON-STATUTORY BODIES
- The date of establishment of each new non-statutory body
(NSB) and, in relation to an existing NSB, information regarding the date of
its establishment in as much detail as is available.
- A statement of each NSB’s objectives
and functions.
- An account of each NSB’s significant
activities during the year.
- An indication that the creation or
continued existence of each NSB, its functions and its organisation have
received Ministerial approval.
- The date on which each NSB will cease
to exist or before which it will be reviewed (whichever is the earlier).
- In the case of any NSB whose continued
existence, functions and organisation have been reviewed and whose continued
existence has been approved by the Minister, a summary of the outcome of the
review.
- A list of any positions provided for
ex-officio government members on each NSB and of any positions provided for
representatives nominated by particular non–government organisations.
- The maximum term of appointment to
each other position on an NSB.
- Except in cases where there may be
little or no continuity of membership from one meeting to the next, the names
of individual members of each NSB, and their terms of appointment.
- The manner in which the level of remuneration
(if any) paid to members of each NSB is determined.
- The manner in which each NSB is funded.
- A summary of any other financial
arrangements such as the kinds of expenditure that can be made from the funds
provided, and the nature of secretariat services provided and the way in which
these are funded.
- An indication, in respect of each NSB,
as to whether one of its functions is to distribute funds to other
organisations or individuals.
- In the case of each NSB with its own
accounting system, an audited financial statement.
- In the case of each NSB that operates
through its parent body’s accounts, an account of receipts and expenditures, to
be provided on a program basis:
- with the NSB’s work reflected in the parent body’s published program
structure;
- and with performance related to objectives and measured in terms
of stated criteria, in accordance with standard program budgeting techniques;
and
- the amounts of any grants made by each NSB.
(Derived from the
government response to the report on non-statutory bodies of the Senate
Standing Committee on Finance and Government Operations, Senate Hansard,
Vol. S.124, 8 December 1987, pp. 2643–5.)
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