Content

Financial Reporting and Acquittals

In accordance with the NHMRC Deed of Agreement all NHMRC Administering Institutions are required to submit an Annual Financial Statement and a Financial Acquittal for each individually funded grant.  This page sets out the requirements for these Statements and the reporting template to be used.

Reporting Template

For both the Annual Financial Statement and the Financial Acquittal the same reporting template is to be used with a requirement to indicate what the statement type is at the top of the template. Financial data for each completed year of the approved funding period is to be entered in the template so as to provide a progressive record of the receipt and application of NHMRC funds.

» Download: Financial Reporting Template (Excel, 30kb)PDF icon

[top]

Interest Earned

All grants funded by NHMRC include in the Deed of Agreement a requirement for the disclosure of interest earned on grant funds. Thus, in the Annual Financial Report and the Financial Acquittal all interest monies received for the duration of funding are required to be reported.

[top]

Certification

Financial Statements must be certified by a Chief Financial Officer) or delegate) that the accounts and records underlying the Statements have been maintained in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards. Further, the Executive Director/General Manager or delegate must certify that the terms and conditions of the Deed of Agreement have been complied with.

[top]

Submission of Reports

Where an Annual Financial Statement or Financial Acquittal has not been received within seven days after the due date, NHMRC will write to the relevant Institution requesting the financial report. Failure to provide the report(s) will result in consideration being given to suspending payments to all active grants until the reports have been submitted.

[top]

Annual Financial Statement

An Annual Financial Statement must be submitted to NHMRC by 31 March following each calendar year of funding. For reporting purposes an Annual Financial Statement must be prepared for the final year of funding.  income and expenditure must be accounted for each reporting period and the carry forward of unspent monies in any funding year is required to be disclosed. s

Unspent funds

here the unspent funds are greater than 25% of the annual budget justification is required. The justification should be attached to and submitted with the completed financial statement, and be signed by the CIA. The Institution should use the template below – Request to Carry Forward NHMRC Grant Funds. If the justification for carry forward of unspent funds is unacceptable the NHMRC may seek further clarification before the carry forward request is approved.

» Download: Request to Carry Forward NHMRC Grant Funds (Word, 45kb)PDF icon

In the final year of a funded project where there is a carry forward of funds the Institution must advise the NHMRC of the approximate amount by 31 December of that year.  This notification can take the form of an email sent by the RAO. Carry forward of funds can be justified on the following grounds:

  • delayed start to the grant (e.g. because of delays in obtaining ethics approvals(s) or securing essential funding from partners/collaborators
  • factors beyond the reasonable control of the CI (e.g. unavailability of suitable subjects for clinical studies; unavailability of critical staff because of sick leave or delays in recruitment of PhD students or laboratory personnel)
  • evidence that progress is being made to eliminate earlier delays (i.e. the absence of persistent and/or growing underperformance).

If it is apparent that the carry forward will not be spent within the next year, grant payments will be suspended.  Once expenditure has caught up the RAO must advise NHMRC in order that quarterly payments can be resumed.

[top]

Financial Acquittal

Acquittal refers to the process of assessing and reconciling the final financial report submitted by an Institution at the conclusion of the funding agreement (this also includes acquittals prepared following an approved transfer of a grant). This review enables NHMRC to ascertain whether the participant has satisfied their obligations as specified in the funding agreement and that the funds can be accounted for. 

A Financial Acquittal must be submitted to NHMRC no later than 6 months after the funding period has been completed or six months after termination of the grant. The total of all monies received for the duration of funding must be reported on the same template as used for the Annual Financial Statement (refer above).  Any unspent funds must be returned to NHMRC.

Where a grant will not be completed within the approved funding period the Administering Institution may request from NHMRC an extension to enable completion of the grant. The request must reach NHMRC by 31 December of the final year of funding. If approval is granted to extend the grant an additional Annual Financial

Statement will be required.

[top]

Help

To view PDF documents use the Adobe Acrobat Reader:

 

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader icon

 

Linked documents tagged with the PDF icon PDF icon are formatted as Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) files. If you wish to view the PDF files you will need to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free download from the Adobe web site.

Note: Attempting to open large PDF files within the browser window may lead to system problems. For more information see Troubleshooting and access of large pdf documents.


Related topics


footer links