Council & Business
11 May, 2023
Policy update to improve guidance for council grants
An updated Community Support Policy has been adopted by the Central Goldfields Shire Council ahead of its community grant program opening. Councillors moved to adopt the policy at this month’s ordinary council meeting, which is an updated version...
An updated Community Support Policy has been adopted by the Central Goldfields Shire Council ahead of its community grant program opening.
Councillors moved to adopt the policy at this month’s ordinary council meeting, which is an updated version of the original policy adopted in September 2019.
Historically, council has provided a range of community support, both cash and in-kind, to community organisations, groups and committees to assist them in running events, activities, programs and services in the shire.
At its core, the policy provides guidance on any council contribution provided to community organisations for community grants, in-kind support and planning and building fee waivers.
According to the report tabled at this month’s meeting, the policy has been updated following a recommendation from the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO), which made nine recommendations to all councils relating to strengthening fraud controls and improving guidance for grant related fraud.
Speaking during the meeting, councillor Anna De Villiers said with the 2023-24 community grants round opening in the coming weeks, it was timely for the updated policy to be adopted.
“I’m really pleased we’ve reached this point, this policy has been a while in the making,” she said.
“This updated policy addresses all of the issues that were identified earlier.
“The responses specifically targets and describes due process for community grants, which are made available by council once a year.
“I believe the community grants will be announced within the next two months so this is very timely and congratulations to the staff for this.”
The review of the policy was undertaken by council’s community partnership unit and was informed by feedback from councillors and council staff following a review of the 2022 community grants program.
Cr Wayne Sproull seconded the motion to adopt the updated policy, encouraging residents and in particular community groups, to read over the updated work.
“This policy was originally adopted to guide council contributions provided to community organisations, groups and committees through community grants, in-kind support and planning fee waivers,” he said.
“There have been some wording changes and the addition of a conflict of interest clause as well as other changes, so please take the time to read the updated policy.”