Upgrade to Grants Processes in Northern Territory
28 June 2016 at 4:01 pm
The Northern Territory Government is to carry out an “extensive consultation process” with the Not for Profit sector to help design a new all-of-government grant management system.
The NT budget for 2016/17 allocated $1.4 million over three years to develop the system to be called GrantsNT, as well as $550,000 ongoing from 2018/19 to operate it.
The NT minister for corporate and information services, Peter Styles, said the system would save time and money for both grant recipients and government.
“The NT Government provides almost $1 billion in grants annually to businesses, community organisations and individuals,” Styles said.
“Currently grants programs are managed using manual processes or standalone databases which are inconsistent and time-intensive for applicants and resource-intensive and prone to human error for agencies.
“GrantsNT will provide a single portal for all grants using standardised application, reporting and acquittal processes.
“Reports on grant payments and recipients across programs and agencies will allow for improved grant targeting and reduced duplication or overlaps in funding.
“There will be extensive consultation with the non-government-organisation sector in the design of the system to ensure GrantsNT is easy to use and does not impose unnecessary administrative burdens on applicants.”
A whole-of-government grants management system was identified as part of the Improving Public Services Review to reduce red tape and improve productivity of grant applicants, recipients and government.
The minister said the GrantsNT system would be custom developed to provide the most flexible, cost-effective and low-risk solution.
“Initial implementation will focus on government agencies that currently have manual grants management processes. Agencies with existing systems will then migrate to GrantsNT once it is operational,” he said.
He said GrantsNT will be developed and implemented over a three-year timeline.
Welfare peak body, NTCOSS said it looked forward to working closely with the government on the grant management system.
