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Commonwealth Low-risk Grant Agreement Template

Grants Policy TeamResource Management Department of Finance

Government Programme Community of Practice Forum28 May 2014

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The Government’s policy to increase productivity and reduce regulation

• Reduce the regulatory burden for individuals, businesses and community organisations through red tape reduction

• Establishment of a centralised register of Commonwealth contract and grant recipients

• Adopt a common form contract encapsulating common terms and conditions

• http://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2013/07/08/coalitions-policy-boost-productivity-and-reduce-regulation

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Model low-risk grant agreement template

• Seeks to streamline arrangements between the Australian Government and grant recipients

• Takes a holistic approach to risk:

‒ program risks

‒ project/activity risks

‒ grantee risks

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Structure of the low-risk grant agreement template

Grant Agreement

Template Schedule

Supplementary Terms

Grant Details Introductory Information

General Grant Conditions

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General Grant Conditions

• 20 standard terms and conditions that apply to all agreements using the template

• ‘Benchmark’ risk through specific clauses

• Cannot be amended or added to, but can be overridden by Supplementary Terms

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Supplementary Terms

• Additional optional grant specific terms that may ‘override’ the General Grants Conditions

• Provide greater flexibility within the template while maintaining consistency

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Supporting guidance

• Risk tool - assists agency staff to determine whether the low-risk grant agreement template is appropriate for a specific grant

• User guide - provides step-by-step guidance on using the Commonwealth low-risk grant agreement template

• See Finance website: http://www.finance.gov.au/financial-framework/financial-management-policy-guidance/grants/grant-agreement-template-project.html

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Further information

Finance website• Low-risk grant agreement template

• Risk tool and User guide

Grants Policy Team inbox• grants@finance.gov.au

AusTender• Basic contract suite