Speaking at the Thomson Reuters Not-for-profit Law & Regulation Conference in Sydney on Wed 17.10.2012, the Assistant Treasurer announced that the implementation of a “report-once, use-often reporting framework” for the not-for-profit (NFP) sector would be supported by amendments to Commonwealth Grant Guidelines. The Guidelines establish the grants policy and reporting framework for all Commonwealth departments and agencies subject to the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997.
The changes announced will state that agency staff should not seek information from grant applicants and grant recipients that is collected by other Commonwealth entities and is available to agency staff. In particular, they will provide that agency staff must not request information already provided to the ACNC by an organisation regulated by it.
The changes to the Grant Guidelines will also state that when determining whether acquittal or reporting requirements are required for a grant, agency staff must have regard to information collected by regulators, such as the ACNC. In addition, the changes will state that if an entity provides an annual audited financial statement to the ACNC, then a grant acquittal should not be required, unless the nature of the activity for which the grant has been provided is regarded as high risk.
Mr Bradbury said the ACNC would administer what is called a “charity passport” which will be a collection of data that charities will report once to the ACNC to meet the baseline corporate and financial reporting requirements of Australian Government agencies.
The Bills implementing the NFP reforms – the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Bill 2012 and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2012 – are still before the Senate. They were previously amended in the House of Reps and the Government proposes further amendments in the Senate. It then expects the ACNC to be up and running by early December this year.
The Assistant Treasurer said some commentators and opponents of the ACNC have argued that a “referral of powers” is required in order to enable the ACNC to address the regulatory burden on the NFP sector. This is incorrect, he said, and the aim of the ACNC is to streamline national regulation of the NFP sector and channel it through the ACNC. Mr Bradbury said some States and Territories will choose to align their regulatory and reporting arrangements with the ACNC, while some may prefer to “refer their powers”.
[LTN 201, 17/10]