Annual accountability
Annual accountability requirements, information about the process, and resources to assist with preparing submissions. Annual accountability applies to DCJ service providers that deliver funded contracts.
Frequently asked questions
- How long will it take to complete all the required details in the Contracting Portal?
- How do I find out who my DCJ contract manager is?
- How and where can we add authorised signatories who are able to sign off on DCJ documentation?
- Why can’t service providers depreciate assets purchased using DCJ funds? If an asset isn't sold but eventually outlives its usefulness, can we include it in the depreciation schedule?
- Is there a set amount of funding that can be used for the purchase of assets?
- What are the requirements for reporting administrative, fixed and variable overhead costs?
- How do we report government subsidies?
- Can we roll over unspent COVID-19 payments, or do we need approval from the department?
- The reporting requirements and resources for 2022-2023 has a special note for Permanency Support Program (PSP) providers that payments for alternative care arrangements (ACA) must have a separate line in the income and expenditure statement. Does this also apply to individual placement arrangements (IPA) and Complex Needs Payments?
- We have accrued income based on what we believe the Permanency Support Program (PSP) clients should be paid by DCJ. Since the reconciliation hasn’t been completed by DCJ, this figure may change once the reconciliation is done. Should we include these? Also, in relation to Complex Needs Payments, we haven’t received confirmation from DCJ whether you agree with our figures, so we won't be able to accrue this income. Are they to be included at item 7 on the contract-level form?
- How do we report alternative care arrangement (ACA) reimbursements?
- For Permanency Support Program (PSP) providers, does the prepopulated figure for income received from DCJ include payments for alternative care arrangement (ACA), individual placement arrangements (IPA) and Complex Needs Payments?
- What do we do if our organisation doesn’t comply with one of the paragraphs in either the service provider declaration for corporate-level accountability or the annual accountability certification for contract-level accountability?
1. How long will it take to complete all the required details in the Contracting Portal?
It should take less than an hour, depending on complexity and your familiarity with the process.
You’ll be able to answer many questions in the Contracting Portal by referring to:
- your income and expenditure statement, for questions on the contract-level form, and
- your full organisation financial statements, for questions on the corporate-level form.
So have those documents on hand when entering your responses.
Also, the questions don’t vary very much from year to year, so this makes it easier for you to complete the forms.
Use the explanation of reporting forms for annual accountability 2022–2023 to assist with your responses to the questions.
2. How do I find out who my DCJ contract manager is?
Your DCJ contract manager for the contract is listed in two places in the Contracting Portal.
When you navigate to a Program Level Agreement (PLA) record, the contract manager is listed on the top on the screen with the rest on the PLA details. You'll also find the contract manager's details on the bottom of the Acquittals details page, under the form.
3. How and where can we add authorised signatories who are able to sign off on DCJ documentation?
You can provide the details of your board or committee members, as well as key executives, in the Contracting Portal.
- Add the individuals as ‘users’.
- In their job title, indicate the position that they hold on the governance body or that they are an authorised signatory.
- You don’t need to change their status to ‘active’ nor do you need to give them a user type if they won’t be required to access the portal.
You can get further instructions on adding a user from the portal Help menu.
Find out more about authorised signatories
4. Why can’t service providers depreciate assets purchased using DCJ funds? If an asset isn't sold but eventually outlives its usefulness, can we include it in the depreciation schedule?
You may depreciate assets in your organisation's accounts, as required by the accounting standards.
However, don’t report asset depreciation in either the income and expenditure statements for DCJ contracts or in the form on the Contracting Portal.
This is because:
- Any asset purchased with DCJ funds has already been claimed outright as an expense against the contract funding in the financial year of purchase.
- To claim depreciation on the same asset in subsequent years is to claim an additional deduction for an expense already claimed.
5. Is there a set amount of funding that can be used for the purchase of assets?
No.
However, we recommend your organisation performs a cost-benefit analysis to justify the amount allocated to an asset's purchase, so that it doesn’t affect delivery on the contracted services. Please refer to your contract and also contact your DCJ contract manager to ensure reasonable steps have been taken prior to purchase of any assets.
6. What are the requirements for reporting administrative, fixed and variable overhead costs?
These indirect contract administration costs may have been incurred by you in support of delivering the services agreed in the contract with DCJ.
Your reporting requirements lists expenses that may be included as indirect contract administration costs.
7. How do we report government subsidies?
Report government subsidies as a corporate-level subsidy in your financial statements.
This is fully explained in reporting government grants and subsidies in your reporting requirements.
However, if your organisation received a special payment from DCJ to assist with your response to COVID-19, and it wasn’t a special grant with its own contract, you must report the funds as income for the applicable DCJ contracts.
8. Can we roll over unspent COVID-19 payments, or do we need approval from the department?
You can only roll over unspent COVID-19 payments if we gave your organisation an extension to carry forward spending.
Refer to the unspent funds requirements for 2022–2023 for more information.
9. The reporting requirements and resources for 2022-2023 has a special note for Permanency Support Program (PSP) providers that payments for alternative care arrangements (ACA) must have a separate line in the income and expenditure statement. Does this also apply to individual placement arrangements (IPA) and Complex Needs Payments?
Yes. If you’ve received any payments outside of our contracting payments system (for example, on an invoice basis) for ACA, IPA and Complex Needs Payments, include a separate line item in your income and expenditure statement.
In addition, report such payments at item 7 on the contract-level form (other contract-related income).
10. We have accrued income based on what we believe the Permanency Support Program (PSP) clients should be paid by DCJ. Since the reconciliation hasn’t been completed by DCJ, this figure may change once the reconciliation is done. Should we include these? Also, in relation to Complex Needs Payments, we haven’t received confirmation from DCJ whether you agree with our figures, so we won't be able to accrue this income. Are they to be included at item 7 on the contract-level form?
Yes. Include Complex Needs Payments at item 7. And include a separate line item in the income and expenditure statement.
We understand there are cases of unreconciled amounts. In these cases, use the accounting standards revenue recognition criteria to accrue such income, and report accordingly at the contract level based on your reconciliations. If required, you may seek further advice from your external accountant or auditor.
We also understand that the accrued amount may differ to actual income received at a later stage, and subsequent adjustment to accrual may be required.
For the PSP contract that ended 30 September 2022, DCJ will perform an unspent funds reconciliation for the full PSP contract term following completion of the payment reconciliations for your contract. This will ensure:
- late payments made after payment reconciliations are recognised or allocated in the correct financial year or the financial year it related to
- accuracy of the unspent funds that are carried forward to following financial year (where applicable)
- unspent funds reported at end of PSP contract term (30 September 2022) are reasonably accurate.
The unspent funds reconciliation will be performed by the DCJ Prudential Oversight team, with assistance from the service providers and relevant contract manager. Details of the reconciliation including outcomes will be shared with you prior to finalisation.
Subject to payment reconciliation deadlines, we plan to finalise all PSP unspent funds reconciliation by no later than 31 October 2023. We’ll commence the unspent funds reconciliation as soon as we have complete reconciled payment and accountability data for the full term of the PSP contract.
11. How do we report alternative care arrangement (ACA) reimbursements?
Include payments for ACA at item 7 on the contract-level form (other contract-related income). And include a separate line item in the income and expenditure statement.
12. For Permanency Support Program (PSP) providers, does the prepopulated figure for income received from DCJ include payments for alternative care arrangement (ACA), individual placement arrangements (IPA) and Complex Needs Payments?
No. Payments outside of our contracting payments system (for example, on an invoice basis) for ACA, IPA and Complex Needs Payments aren’t included in the prepopulated field at item 1 on the contract-level form.
Report such payments at item 7 on the contract-level form (other contract-related income). And include a separate line item in your income and expenditure statement.
13. What do we do if our organisation doesn’t comply with one of the paragraphs in either the service provider declaration for corporate-level accountability or the annual accountability certification for contract-level accountability?
The declaration and certification forms both include a table where you can list any exceptions to meeting the requirements, and the reasons for the exceptions.