Letter of transmittal

A copy of the letter of transmittal signed and dated by accountable authority on date final text approved, with statement that the report has been prepared in accordance with section 46 of the Act and any enabling legislation that specifies additional requirements in relation to the annual report.

Mandatory

Preliminary

Aids to access.

Table of contents.

Mandatory

Preliminary

Alphabetical index.

Mandatory

Part 5

Glossary, abbreviations and acronyms.

Mandatory

Part 5

List of requirements.

Mandatory

Part 5

Details of contact officer.

Mandatory 

Inside front cover

Entity’s website address.

Mandatory

Inside front cover 

Electronic address of report.

Mandatory

Inside front cover

Review by the accountable authority

A review by the accountable authority of the entity. 

Mandatory

Part 1

Overview of entity

A description of the role and functions of the entity.

Mandatory

Part 1

A description of the organisational structure of the entity.

Mandatory

Part 1

A description of the outcomes and programs administered by the entity.

Mandatory

Part 1

A description of the purposes of the entity as included in the corporate plan.

Mandatory

Part 1 and Part 2

An outline of the structure of the portfolio of the entity.

Portfolio departments—Mandatory

N/A

Where the outcomes and programs administered by the entity differ from any Portfolio Budget Statement, Portfolio Additional Estimates Statement or other portfolio estimates statement that was prepared for the entity for the period, include details of variation and reasons for change.

Mandatory

N/A

Report on the performance of the entity 

Annual performance statements

Annual performance statement in accordance with paragraph 39(1)(b) of the Act and section 16F of the Rule. 

Mandatory

Part 2

Report on financial performance

A discussion and analysis of the entity’s financial performance.

Mandatory

Part 4

A table summarising the total resources and total payments of the entity.

Mandatory

Part 4

If there may be significant changes in the financial results during or after the previous or current reporting period, information on those changes, including: the cause of any operating loss of the entity; how the entity has responded to the loss and the actions that have been taken in relation to the loss; and any matter or circumstances that it can reasonably be anticipated will have a significant impact on the entity’s future operation or financial results.

Mandatory

N/A

Management and accountability

Corporate governance

Information on compliance with section 10 (fraud systems).

Mandatory

Part 3

A certification by accountable authority that fraud risk assessments and fraud control plans have been prepared.

Mandatory

Letter of Transmittal

A certification by accountable authority that appropriate mechanisms for preventing, detecting incidents of, investigating or otherwise dealing with, and recording or reporting fraud that meet the specific needs of the entity are in place.

Mandatory

Letter of Transmittal 

A certification by accountable authority that all reasonable measures have been taken to deal appropriately with fraud relating to the entity.

Mandatory

Letter of Transmittal

An outline of structures and processes in place for the entity to implement principles and objectives of corporate governance.

Mandatory

Part 3

A statement of significant issues reported to the Minister under paragraph 19(1)(e) of the Act that relates to non-compliance with Finance law and action taken to remedy non-compliance.

If applicable, Mandatory

N/A

External scrutiny

Information on significant developments in external scrutiny and entity’s response to the scrutiny.

Mandatory

Part 3

Information on judicial decisions and decisions of administrative tribunals and by the Australian Information Commissioner that may have a significant effect on the operations of the entity.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 3

Information on any reports by the Auditor-General (other than report under section 43 of the Act), a Parliamentary Committee, or the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 3

Information on any capability reviews on the entity that were released during the period.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 3

Management of human resources

Assessment of the entity’s effectiveness in managing and developing human resources to achieve entity objectives.

Mandatory

Part 3

Statistics on the entity’s APS employees on an ongoing and non-ongoing basis, including the following:

• statistics on staffing classification level
• statistics on full-time employees
• statistics on part-time employees
• statistics on gender
• statistics on staff location, and
• statistics on employees who identify as Indigenous.

Mandatory

Part 3

Information on any enterprise agreements, individual flexibility arrangements, Australian Workplace Agreements, common law contracts and determinations under subsection 24(1) of the Public Service Act 1999. 

Mandatory

Part 3

Information on the number of SES and non-SES employees covered by agreements etc. identified in paragraph 17AG(4)(c).

Mandatory

Part 3

The salary ranges available for APS employees by classification level. 

Mandatory

Part 3

A description of non-salary benefits provided to employees.

Mandatory

Part 3

Information on the number of employees at each classification level who receive performance pay.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 3

Information on the average amount of performance payment, and range of such payments, at each classification level.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 3

Information on aggregate amounts of performance payments.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 3

Assets management

An assessment of effectiveness of assets management where asset management is a significant part of the entity’s activities.

Mandatory

Part 4

Purchasing

An assessment of entity performance against the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. 

Mandatory

Part 4

Consultants

A summary statement detailing the number of new contracts engaging consultants entered into during the period; the total actual expenditure on all new consultancy entered into during the period (inclusive of GST); the number of ongoing consultancy contracts that were entered into during a previous reporting period; and the total actual expenditure in the reporting year on the ongoing consultancy contracts (inclusive of GST). 

Mandatory

Part 4

A statement that ‘During [reporting period], [specific number] new consultancy contracts were entered into involving total actual expenditure of $[specific million]. In addition, [specific number] ongoing consultancy contracts were active during the period, involving total actual expenditure of $[specific million]’.

Mandatory

Part 4

A summary of the policies and procedures for selecting and engaging consultants and the main categories of purposes for which consultants were engaged.

Mandatory

Part 4

A statement that ‘Annual reports contain information about actual expenditure on contracts for consultancies. Information on the value of contracts and consultancies is available on the AusTender website’.

Mandatory

Part 4

Australian National Audit Office Access Clauses

If an entity entered into a contract with a value of more than $100,000 (inclusive of GST) and the contract did not provide the Auditor-General with access to the contractor’s premises, the report must include the name of the contractor, purpose and value of the contract, and the reason why a clause allowing access was not included in the contract.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 4

Exempt contracts

If an entity entered into a contract or there is a standing offer with a value greater than $10 000 (inclusive of GST) which has been exempted from being published in AusTender because it would disclose exempt matters under the FOI Act, the annual report must include a statement that the contract or standing offer has been exempted, and the value of the contract or standing offer, to the extent that doing so does not disclose the exempt matters. 

If applicable Mandatory

Part 4

Small business

A statement that ‘[Name of entity] supports small business participation in the Commonwealth Government procurement market. Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Small Enterprise participation statistics are available on the Department of Finance’s website’. 

Mandatory

Part 4

An outline of the ways in which the procurement practices of the entity support small and medium enterprises.

Mandatory

Part 4

If the entity is considered by the Department administered by the Finance Minister as material in nature—a statement that ‘[Name of entity] recognises the importance of ensuring that small businesses are paid on time. The results of the Survey of Australian Government Payments to Small Business are available on the Treasury’s website’.

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 4

Financial statements

Inclusion of the annual financial statements in accordance with subsection 43(4) of the Act.

Mandatory

Part 4

Other mandatory information

If the entity conducted advertising campaigns, a statement that ‘During [reporting period], the [name of entity] conducted the following advertising campaigns: [name of advertising campaigns undertaken]. Further information on those advertising campaigns is available at [address of entity’s website] and in the reports on Australian Government advertising prepared by the Department of Finance. Those reports are available on the Department of Finance’s website’. 

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 4

If the entity did not conduct advertising campaigns, a statement to that effect. 

If applicable, Mandatory

Part 4

A statement that ‘Information on grants awarded to [name of entity] during [reporting period] is available at [address of entity’s website]’. 

if applicable, Mandatory

Part 4

Outline of mechanisms of disability reporting, including reference to website for further information.

Mandatory

Part 3

Website reference to where the entity’s Information Publication Scheme statement pursuant to Part II of FOI Act can be found. 

Mandatory

Part 3

Correction of material errors in previous annual report.

If applicable, Mandatory

N/A

Information required by other legislation.

Mandatory

Part 3

Making digital services easy to use for people with disability. Criterion 9 of the Digital Service Standard specifies that services must be accessible to all users regardless of their ability and environment. 

Approach to our digital service design and delivery. 

Second stage of our digital service design and delivery process. 

Australian Public Service 

Australian Public Service Commission 

Public Service Act 1999 

Third stage of our digital service design and delivery process. 

A growing list of records, called blocks, linked using cryptography.

Chief Executive Officer 

Internet storage and access to data and programs. 

Groups in which people from similar fields across government can exchange ideas, collaborate on best practice, showcase ongoing work and solve common problems together. 

First stage of our digital service design and delivery process. 

Created after a person’s identity is verified online, without the need to visit a government office. A digital identity can be used over and over again to securely and consistently access a range of government services.

A bench-mark or model service, worthy of imitation. 

Groups of individuals with common interests. 

Information and communications technology. 

A set of activities a person or business does to achieve something, triggered by an event. It is described from their point of view and includes all activities, not just interactions with government services. Life event journeys usually have a clear beginning triggered by some event, and a clear outcome.

Fourth and final stage of the Digital Service Standard. 

Software whose original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified by anyone. Criterion 8 in the Digital Service Standard requires teams to make all new source code open by default. 

Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 

Senior Executive Service 

Small and medium enterprises 

Discovered by researching why users need a product or service and how they need to access it. 

Accessibility policy for Australian government digital services is aligned with an international standard, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).