© Commonwealth of Australia 2016 ISBN: 978-1-925205-16-9 (online) With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted, all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia () licence. The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3 AU licence. Use of the Coat of Arms The terms under which the Coat of Arms can be used are detailed on the following website: . Contact us Questions or comments about this guide can be directed to: Public Management Reform Agenda Department of Finance One Canberra Avenue Forrest ACT 2603 Email: Internet:
An entity must prepare its annual performance statements as soon as practicable the end of each financial year and include the statements in its annual report. Annual reports An entity’s annual report is still a key document under the enhanced Commonwealth performance framework. It includes the audited financial statements and annual performance statements for entities. The annual report remains the primary document through which responsible Ministers report to the parliament on the actual performance of entities. All annual report requirements have now been consolidated under the PGPA Act. Commonwealth entities are covered under section 46 of the PGPA Act while Commonwealth companies are covered under section 97. The PGPA Rule contains the mandatory requirements for Commonwealth entities and Commonwealth companies. The specific sections of the PGPA Rule that apply include: Non-corporate Commonwealth entities – Part 2-3, Division 3A, Subdivision A Corporate Commonwealth entities – Part 2-3, Division 3A, Subdivision B Commonwealth companies – Part 3-3 Annual reports are required to be provided to the relevant Minister by 15 October each year, and expected to be tabled in Parliament no later than 31 October. Relationship between corporate and Portfolio Budget Statements Portfolio Budget Statements and corporate plans are produced at different times at the start of each financial year/reporting period. Portfolio Budget Statements are produced at Budget, prior to the start of the financial year, while corporate plans are required by 31 August, after the start of the financial year (although this does not prevent earlier production if desired). However, the performance criteria in each document will need to be reported collectively in a single annual performance statement (placed in annual reports at the end of the financial year). Accordingly, it is important that the Portfolio Budget Statements and corporate plan work together and complement each other to ensure a consistent performance story is able to be presented in the annual performance statements at the end of the financial year. It is expected that entities will build on the performance criteria from their Portfolio Budget Statements and provide, where justified, more detailed performance criteria in their corporate plan. This positions the corporate plan as the primary document for setting out non-financial performance and provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of how an entity intends to measure and assess its performance. Importantly, entities need to ensure that corporate plans are updated for any new budget measures that may be presented in subsequent portfolio estimates statements (for example, Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements). Figure 2: Performance information and the relationship between the Portfolio Budget Statements and corporate plan