Canberra Launches 'Funding First, Project Optional' Office to Streamline Grant Requests
After reports that ministers sought money for projects before anyone had worked out what the projects actually were, the government says it will simply make that the official process.
Canberra has decided the fastest way to stop fielding questions about grants requested before any project details exist is to build an entire office around doing exactly that, on purpose, from now on.
The newly announced Placeholder Funding Office will allow any minister to submit a dollar figure of their choosing for any council, precinct or facility, with a full project description to be supplied later if convenient. Officials describe the reform as removing an unnecessary and time-consuming step in which a project is required to exist before it is funded.
"We came together as one department, undecided," said a spokesperson for the office, before excusing themselves to attend a briefing on what the money from the briefing might eventually be spent on.
Under the new arrangement, councils will submit a number, the number will be approved, and a working group will then be convened to determine, at its leisure, what the number was for. A second working group has already been scheduled to review the findings of the first, pending the first group's formation.
Supporters of the change say it finally brings consistency to a process that had, until now, only been informal.