Financial Management Act 1996

This section applies to a territory authority if the authority has a governing board.

A territory authority has a governing board if the establishing Act for the authority establishes a governing board for the authority (see s 76).

The governing board of the territory authority is responsible, under the responsible Minister, for the efficient and effective financial management of the resources for which the authority is responsible.

The governing board of a territory authority must manage the authority in a way that promotes—

the achievement of the purpose of the authority; and

the financial sustainability of the authority.

Without limiting subsections (2) and (3), the governing board of the territory authority is responsible, under the responsible Minister, for ensuring the following:

that expenses incurred by the authority are properly authorised;

that, if an appropriation is made in relation to the authority, any amount of the appropriation spent by the authority is spent in accordance with the appropriation;

that, as far as practicable, the operations of the authority during a financial year are consistent with, and comparable to, the estimates in the authority’s statement of intent for the year;

that payments made by the authority are properly authorised and correctly made;

that the staff of the authority comply with the requirements of this Act;

A reference to an Act includes a reference to the statutory instruments made or in force under the Act, including in this case the financial management guidelines (see Legislation Act, s 104).

that proper accounts and records are kept of the transactions and affairs of the authority in accordance with accounting standards;

that adequate control is maintained over the assets of the authority and assets under the authority’s control;

that adequate control is maintained over the incurring of liabilities by the authority.

A report prepared by the territory authority under the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004 for a financial year must include an explanation of material variations between the actual results of the authority for the year and the estimates in the authority’s statement of intent for the year.

In this section: