Background

Council currently benefits from substantial grants receipts from both regular and ad hoc sources. For the financial year 2019-2020, Council received $4.3M in capital and $16.1M in operating grants, with the majority of funding coming from the State or Federal governments.

Most recently the Council secured over $18.7M funding from the Western Sydney City Deal to deliver improved community facilities and public spaces, and enhance livability across the local government area.

The 2017 review of delegations recommended that ELT conduct a strategic review of grant applications, including seeking grants, operational implication analysis and authorisation processes relating to grants.

Council reports on its grant expenditure in the Annual Financial Statements, with the Strategic Resource Allocation service overseeing the grants register and undertaking monthly reconciliations of income and expenditure. Grants income and expenditure is also monitored through the monthly and quarterly reporting processes.

The development and introduction of a grants management framework aims to:

• Establish a framework for approving, managing, monitoring and evaluating grants and grant funded initiatives; and
• Ensure consistent and objective analysis of inbound (e.g. grants from government) funding opportunities to ensure alignment with Council’s integrated plans (i.e. Community Strategic Plan, Resourcing Strategy, Delivery Program and Operational Plan).