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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-17 Daily Xml
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ERNABELLA EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRE

In reply to Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (10 September 2008).

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management): The money was for the early childhood development of Aboriginal people in one of the most deprived communities in our country, the APY lands, and in particular Ernabella, the largest of those communities.

The amount of money is $500,000, plus GST, so $550,000. Payment was made by cheque on 25 June 2008. It was paid from DPC administered items, APY lands (shown as APY lands 'Additional services' in the DPC portfolio statements within the budget papers). Payment was within the approved budget of the APY lands budget line. The payment was approved by the Executive Director, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, within her delegated authority. Financial authorisation for expenditure was made, once again, by the Executive Director, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (for 2007-08) for $550,000.

An authority for the approval of the grant payment was provided by the existing expenditure delegation, and the expenditure was in compliance with the requirements of Treasurer's Instruction 8, financial authorisations. Payment of the grant was made subsequent to the execution of a formal grant agreement between the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (signed on behalf of the minister by Joslene Mazel, according to her delegation) and the Ernabella Aboriginal School on 13 June 2008.

The agreement is of a standard type for a grant of this nature. The agreement provides for the grant recipient to provide full financial reporting to the government on the use of the grant, including the provision of audited financial statements. Accordingly, the provision of the grant was in accordance with the requirement of Treasurer's Instruction (TI) 15, grant funding.

The expenditure amount covering the grant was within the budgeted total expenditure of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, with a cash alignment policy as an administrative mechanism (not a Treasurer's Instruction) which provides for the return of all agency surplus cash to Consolidated Account subsequent to the end of each financial year. The payment of the grant did not result in any breach of the cash alignment policy.

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