2000-2001
Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements 2000-01 - Glossary
These statements have been developed, and are submitted to the parliament, as a statement on the funding requirements being sought for the portfolio.
Accrual accounting - System of accounting where items are brought to account and included in the financial statements as they are earned or incurred, rather than as they are received or paid.
Accumulated depreciation - The aggregate depreciation recorded for a particular depreciating asset.
Additional Estimates - Where amounts appropriated at Budget time are insufficient, Parliament may appropriate more funds to portfolios through the Additional Estimates Acts. This is the Additional Estimates process.
Additional Estimates Bills or Acts - These are Appropriation Bills 3 and 4, and a separate Bill for Parliamentary Departments (Appropriations (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No.2)). These Bills are introduced into the Parliament sometime after the Budget Bills. In 1998-99, the Budget was introduced in May 1998, and the Additional Estimates Bills in December 1998.
Administered items - Expenses, revenues, assets or liabilities managed by agencies on behalf of the Commonwealth. Agencies do not control administered items. Administered items include grants, subsidies and benefits (for example, funding for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme).
Appropriation - An authorisation by Parliament to spend moneys from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
- Annotated appropriation - A form of appropriation which allows a department access to certain money it receives in payment of services. The nature and extent of the amount to be appropriated are specified in agreements made under s.31 of the Financial Management Act (FMA) 1997 between the financial manager and the responsible Minister. See Section 9, Appropriation Bill (No.1) 1998-99.
- Annual appropriation - Two appropriation Bills are introduced into Parliament in May and comprise the Budget. Further Bills are introduced later in the financial year as part of the additional estimates. Parliamentary Departments have their own appropriations.
- Special appropriation - Moneys appropriated by Parliament in an Act separate to an annual Appropriation Act, where the payment is for a specified amount. Special appropriations are not subject to Parliament's annual budget control, unlike the annual appropriations.
- Standing appropriation - Similar to special appropriations, except that instead of an amount being specified in the appropriation, the act provides for an automatic payment of funds where an entitlement exists, such as age pensions, or for the Minister of Finance to determine an amount in accordance with specified criteria. The terms special and standing are often used interchangeably.
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Budget measure - A decision by the Cabinet or Ministers that has been finalised since the 2000-01 Budget and has resulted in a change in expenditure in the years 2000-01 to 2003-04. See also cross-portfolio budget measure.
Capital expenditure - Expenditure by an agency on capital projects, for example purchasing a building.
Capital use charge - The Capital use charge is a dividend requirement levied on Commonwealth General Government Sector agencies and authorities. The Capital use charge payment is based on those agencies' and authorities' departmental net assets at financial year end. Funding for the Capital use charge is included in agencies' and authorities' departmental price of outputs appropriation.
Cross-portfolio Budget measure - This is a budget measure which affects outcomes administered in a number of portfolios.
Departmental expenses - Funds over which the department has significant control (for example, salaries money), which the Department uses to produce outputs.
Depreciation - An expense recognised systematically for the purpose of allocating the depreciable amount of a depreciable asset over its useful life.
Deprival Asset Valuation - Values non-financial assets according to the current cost of their replacement. That is, non-financial assets are valued at the lowest cost of replacing the gross 9service potential' of those assets.
Efficiency dividend - An annual deduction of a percentage of running costs from an agency's budget, which acts as both an incentive to efficiency and a quantification of some of the efficiency gains made by an agency in the previous year.
Equity or net Assets - Residual interest in the assets of an entity after deduction of its liabilities.
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Expense - Total value of all of the resources consumed in producing goods and services.
Financial Management and Accountability (FMA) Act 1997 - The principal legislation governing the proper use and management of public money and public property and other Commonwealth resources. FMA regulations and FMA Orders are made pursuant to the Act.
Forward estimates - A system of rolling three year financial estimates. After the Budget is passed, the first year of the forward estimates becomes the base for next year's Budget bid, and another outyear is added to the forward estimates.
Historical cost - The original cost of acquisition of an asset, including any costs associated with acquisition. Under Australian Accounting Standard 10 'Acquisition of Non Current Assets' assets need to be reported initially at acquisition (historical cost). The Commonwealth's financial reporting requirements issued under the Finance Minister's Orders require the subsequent revaluation of non current assets to their deprival value within every three years.
Liabilities - Future sacrifices of economic benefits that an entity is presently obliged to make to other entities as a result of past transactions or other past events.
Operating result - Equals revenue less expense.
Outcomes - Outcomes are the results of events, actions or circumstances including in particular, the impact of the Commonwealth on the Australian community. Outcomes may be linked with both the outputs of agencies using the departmental expenses under their control, and with the administered expenses which agencies manage on behalf of the Commonwealth. Planned outcomes represent the changes desired by Government. The achievement of actual outcomes is assessed and reported in the Annual Report.
Output groups - The aggregation based on homogeneity of product and/or resource usage of outputs.
Outputs - The goods or services produced by individual Commonwealth agencies for other persons, agencies or organisations including outsourced activities. Outputs are produced with departmental expenses.
Performance indicators - A concise list of indicators, which are used to measure agency effectiveness in achieving the Government's outcomes. Indicators must be measurable, but may be qualitative or quantitative. Indicators in the Portfolio Budget Statement (PBS) are reported against the Annual Report for the same year. Outcomes are generally measured by performance indicators relating to effectiveness and equity, but may include efficiency and access indicators.
Performance measures - A concise list of measures, which are used to provide information on administered items and outputs in terms of quality, quantity and price.
Portfolio Budget Statements - Statements prepared by portfolios to explain the Budget appropriations in terms of outcomes and outputs.
Price - The amount the Government or the community pays for the delivery of agreed outputs.
Quality - Relates to the characteristics by which customers or stakeholders judge a product or service. Assessment of quality involves the use of information gathered from a range of sources including customers and stakeholders.
Quantity - A measure of how many, or how much, of a product or service is produced. Quantities specified in the Portfolio Budget Statements are usually estimates based on the best available evidence. Agencies report on actual quantities in their annual reports.
Revenue - Total value of resources earned or received to cover the production of goods and services.
Staff years - An aggregate measure of employment based on the hours worked by employees over the period of one year. It is the unit of measurement for staff resource use.
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