Draft Community Care Acquitals Policy

February 23 / 2007 by Kevin Marron

Interchange Respite Care NSW supports a clear, transparent and consistent process for the accounting of expenditure of public money through government funding. This should be applied across all funding Departments, both State and Commonwealth.

Many providers receive multiple funding from State and Commonwealth Government programs. The application of different financial acquittal & reporting processes from such various sources creates confusion and additional work for service providers when acquitting government grants.

The NSW Department of Ageing Disability & Home Care require annual audited financial statements.

The acquittal process for Commonwealth Government community care programs varies significantly between programs. The Community Aged Care Package (CACP) and the Extended Aged Care in the Home (EACH) programs provide financial information that is submitted to the Department on a monthly basis.

The National Respite for Carers Program and Commonwealth Carelink acquit quarterly and annual financial reports to the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

As highlighted by the Common Chart of Accounts Project currently being undertaken through the NSW Department of Community Services, charts of accounts and acquittal processes differ from various different government departments, both at state levels and commonwealth levels.

This is a massively inefficient process for recipients of public money.

Currently, service providers are required to include client contributions/fees as part of their acquittal. Service providers charge and collect client fees to supplement the grant contribution provided by a government department. This charge and collection is independent of the funding department and is used meet the operating costs of the service. Interchange Respite Care NSW believes that income from client contributions/fees should be separate from income from government funding.

Interchange Respite Care NSW supports the following position:

• There should be financial accountability for public funds.

• Acquittals for funded services should be undertaken at the end of the contractual period.

• A common chart of accounts should be adopted by all state and commonwealth government departments as a standard template for funded services. Acquital processes should be the audited Income & Expenditure statements for each funded project, with any identified surplus or deficit.

• Income from client contributions should not be part of the acquittal of government funding. This should be separated from government funding.

• State, Territory and Australian Governments develop appeals processes for dealing with anomalies in acquittals.