Northern Territory Auditor-General's Office, February 2023 Report to the Legislative Assembly
Tabled Paper 772
Tabled Papers for 14th Assembly 2020 -; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT
2023-02-14
Tabled by the Speaker
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
English
Tabled papers
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
application/pdf
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/898837
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/898851
Auditor-General for the Northern Territory February 2023 Report Page 61 of 131 Local Jobs Fund cont Conflicts of interest There are existing processes for Directors and designated officers to disclose conflicts of interest. All Agency employees are required to follow DCMCs conflict of interest policy and submit a statement upon becoming aware of a potential, perceived or actual conflict of interest and then provide annual updates. Conflict of interest declarations were required to be completed for Agency staff working on the Fund. Conflict of interest declarations signed in 2021 identified 2 instances where an employee held shares in a business that had applied for and received funding from the Fund. Controls identified by management to mitigate risks associated with identified conflicts of interest included: Prohibiting the conflicted employee from trading shares in the business for the period that Investment Territory is working with the proponents; and Not permitting the conflicted employee to work on the proponents file for the period up to and including any approvals. One of the declarations was not completed as the agreed actions with the manager and the CE approval sections were not documented at the time of the declaration. These sections were subsequently completed in 2022. DCMC does not have established policies and processes that address risks directly related to banking and investment services such as the risk of staff becoming aware of information, inadvertently or otherwise, which may influence their future investment decisions. For the Investment Committee, processes are in place to identify, record and manage conflicts of interest. Applicants are also required to declare conflicts of interest. The LJF Policy Framework March 2022 states Applicants are required to declare any potential or actual conflicts of interest during the Northern Territory Governments consideration of an Application or as soon as they become aware of potential or actual conflicts during any subsequent discussions. Risk assessment A Risk Appetite Statement was developed in February 2019 and updated in March 2022 in conjunction with the update to the Framework and expansion of the scope of products offered. It outlined the risk tolerance levels for the Fund as a whole. The document identified product limits (funding caps) to ensure broad distribution of funds across products and diversification of project-specific risk and explained that the Fund will only invest where there is a reasonable expectation of full return of capital to enable the funds to be recycled into future businesses and projects. Complaints register The Fund is managed within DCMC and therefore any formal complaints with respect to the Fund are managed by DCMC. DCMCs website has a facility for complaints to be made however management advised there have been no formal complaints received to date. Performance outcomes and targets There are 2 performance aspects associated with the Fund. The first aspect considers the performance of the Fund against the expected outcomes associated with the Fund. The second aspect considers the performance of the individual projects against the criteria of the Fund.