2014-15 budget
2014-15 budget decision-making and
estimates update process
This information request provides guidance material for the 2014-15 budget decision-making and
estimates update process and outlines the key dates and requirements, including:

updating the forward estimates within the State Resource Information Management System
(SRIMS); and

the requirements for lodging asset, output and revenue submissions for consideration by the
Budget and Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet (BERC).
Key dates:
10 January 2014 (5pm) – Coordinating Ministers to submit draft High Value/High Risk (HV/HR) full
business cases for existing initiatives that have been presented at previous Budgets. Business cases
are to be submitted to DTF for review and Treasurer’s assessment of full business case deliverability.
31 January 2014 (5pm) – Coordinating Ministers to lodge an electronic copy in SRIMS and a hard copy
with DPC’s Cabinet Secretariat of the BERC asset, output and revenue submissions for funding
consideration as part of the 2014-15 budget.
31 January 2014 (5pm) – departments to return the Commonwealth grant revenue tracking
spreadsheet to DTF Departmental Relationship Managers.
31 January 2014 (5pm) – the final date for the submission of non-policy adjustments to the forward
estimates held within SRIMS. This will be the only opportunity to adjust for non-policy items prior to
publication of the 2014‐15 budget. All adjustments must be agreed with your relevant DTF
Departmental Relationship Manager prior to entry into SRIMS, and all relevant supporting
documentation must also be provided by this date.
February-March 2014 – BERC deliberates to determine funding for initiatives for the 2014-15 budget.
1. Background
Asset submissions
In October 2013 BERC considered the asset investment proposals brought forward to the asset
filtering process. In November 2013, the Treasurer wrote to Coordinating Ministers advising of
BERC’s decisions on which asset investment proposals will be considered for funding as part of the
2014-15 budget.
Treasurer’s advice regarding outputs
In September 2013 BERC approved a number of program areas that would be considered for
additional growth and demand funding as part of the 2014-15 budget. A number of the
Government’s outstanding election commitments were also approved to be brought forward for
consideration for funding as part of the 2014-15 budget.
2. Estimates updates in SRIMS
Departments are required to enter revised financial forecasts in SRIMS no later than 5:00pm on
31 January 2014.
Any new event or information after this time that may require an estimates variation will need to
be discussed with your DTF Departmental Relationship Manager and will only be incorporated into
the 2014-15 budget by exception.
The estimates update is important to ensure that when BERC reviews the budget position as part of
its deliberations for the 2014-15 budget, it is based on the most up-to-date information. These
revised estimates will then form the basis of government resource allocation decisions and the
financial information published in the 2014-15 budget.
Given expectations around financial management across the Victorian Public Sector, it is particularly
important that departments and agencies have appropriate internal review and quality assurance
processes in place to assure themselves of the robustness of their budget estimates, and to identify
and advise DTF on risks impacting on the estimates and any financial implications (and/or
uncertainty) around major/contentious expected transactions (for example, new financing
arrangements).
Departments and agencies should review their estimates in SRIMS and update these for the impacts
of all post 2013-14 Budget Update variations by loading estimate variation journals into SRIMS. All
journals should be clear and have a justified explanation for the change. Guidance material to assist
in completing these updates is provided in Attachment A.
Departments and agencies should update SRIMS progressively as items impacting the estimates
become known, and be in regular contact with their relevant DTF Departmental Relationship
Manager regarding proposed material variations.
Once received, DTF will review and consolidate all data prior to BERC meetings. Over this period DTF
will regularly liaise and provide feedback to departments.
The estimates update should incorporate all variations to ensure that a department’s estimated
financial statements accurately reflect the expected outcome for each year of the budget and
forward estimates years (i.e. 2014-15 through to 2017-18) as well as any changes to the revised
outcome for the 2013-14 financial year. This process must incorporate:

a rigorous review of expected third-party revenue, with any substantiated variations to current
estimates incorporated into SRIMS;

thorough analysis of each expense line to ensure estimates for each budget and forward
estimates year are in line with the expected outcome for each year. Expense estimates must
also be consistent with the Government’s policy to constrain both wage and non-wage costs,
and allocate savings appropriately across expenses;
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
careful consideration of employee, contractor and temporary staff expenses as Government will
be closely scrutinising these forecasts to ensure labour costs are constrained and accurately
reflect the expected outcome for each budget and forward estimates year.

revisions to fees and fines revenue estimates associated with the current Consumer Price Index
indexation rate;

revisions to commonwealth funding and associated expenditure implications;

altered or new Section 29 agreements;

the projected amount of appropriation funding expected to be carried over;

ministerial approvals and approvals in principle for variations to estimates, for example,
Treasurer’s Advance and Financial Management Act 1994 (FMA) provisions including Section 35
advances, and Section 30 appropriation transfers;

changes to estimated capital spending profiles, such as the impact of estimated carryover on
expenditure and resulting cashflow adjustments across the forward estimates. With regard to
forward estimate cashflow adjustments, departments will need to provide detailed supporting
information to their DTF Departmental Relationship Manager so that approval can be sought
from the Treasurer prior to publication;

balance sheet accounts should be reviewed, and modified where needed, to ensure closing
balances are an accurate reflection of expected end-of-year outcomes;

a robust review of all static balances across years (across the entire trial balance) to ensure final
balances appropriately represent the Departments’/Agencies’ actual expectations for each
respective period. Where balances remain static between years, Departments must ensure
there is appropriate/robust evidence/rationale supporting these positions;

the impact of any estimated revaluations over the forward estimates, consistent with Financial
Reporting Direction 103D;

all other non-policy adjustments to the estimates. These adjustments should reflect all post
budget update developments affecting the composition of departmental estimated financial
statements; and

in reviewing the estimates, departments and agencies need to ensure the appropriate related
party entity is used for related party transactions.
Following the finalisation of decision making for the 2014-15 budget, the financial estimates within
SRIMS will need to be updated to reflect BERC decisions. This is separate to the process for updating
output performance data. A further DTF Information Request will be issued advising of this process.
Commonwealth grants entity tracking spreadsheet
DTF will provide departments with a spreadsheet by 15 January 2014 to capture changes to
Commonwealth grants revenues received through DTF, as per the process used in the
2013-14 Budget Update. Departments should return this spreadsheet to DTF Departmental
Relationship Managers by 5.00pm on 31 January 2014.
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3. Information requirements for BERC asset, output and revenue
submissions for 2014-15 budget deliberations
Information requirements for all submissions
Submissions should contain a completed:
1. Cabinet BERC submission template (as per the standard template issued by DPC’s Cabinet
Secretariat).
2. Summary tables (template at Attachment B):
a. summary of departmental initiatives (asset, output and revenue);
b. summary of programs lapsing during the 2013-14 financial year; and
c. summary of programs lapsing during the 2014-15 financial year.
3. The following documents for each individual initiative (asset, output and revenue):
a. Part A of the of the initiative submission template (refer to Attachment C for the
template);
b. full business case (template available at http://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/Investment-Planningand-Evaluation/Investment-professionals-toolkit/Investment-lifecycle-and-High-ValueHigh-Risk-products) OR Part B – ‘short form business case’ (Attachment C) of the initiative
submission template. Part B is only required where a full business case has not been
prepared for the initiative, as outlined in table 1 on page 5 of this DTF Information
Request; and
c. other supporting documents as appropriate (e.g. detailed costings spreadsheet, lapsing
program evaluation1, report back requested by BERC).
In line with guidance issued by DPC’s Cabinet Secretariat, ‘Cabinet-in-Confidence’ should appear on
every page of the submission, including attachments, and pages should be numbered sequentially
throughout the submission, with attachments having their own individual page numbers. Further
details of Cabinet Committee submission requirements can be obtained by contacting your relevant
departmental Cabinet services area.
Guidance on filling out Part A of the initiative submission template
Guidance is provided in Attachment D to assist departments in completing Part A of the individual
initiative template. This guidance includes the following:

an example of how to complete question A.7 – Performance measures; and

standard costings and function categories to be used for VPS staff impacts to assist in the
completion of question A.9 – Staffing requirements.
1
In accordance with the Evaluation policy and standards for lapsing programs, a lapsing program evaluation is required
to be completed for all lapsing programs that are seeking further funding.
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When to prepare a full business case
All initiatives approved to seek funding as part of the 2014-15 budget must submit an individual
initiative business case submission.
As noted earlier, departments are required to submit either a ‘full business case’ OR complete Part
B ‘short form business case’ for each initiative. Departments should refer to Table 1 below, which
explains whether a full business case OR Part B only of the individual initiative template (i.e. a ‘short
form’ business case) template should be completed.
Table 1: Completing business cases and templates for output and asset submissions
Outputs
Where appropriate, the full business case
template may be completed for output
initiatives. The recommended template is
available at Investment Lifecycle and High Value
High Risk Guidelines website (Stage 2: Prove).
Assets
All investments classified as high risk or with a
TEI over $10 million are required to complete a
full business case. The recommended template is
available at Investment Lifecycle and High Value
High Risk Guidelines website (Stage 2: Prove).
In deciding whether to complete a full business
case or Part B only of the individual initiative
template (i.e. the short form business case) for
output submissions, Ministers and departments
should consider the size and complexity of the
initiative.
All asset investments with a TEI under $10 million
(unless they are classified as high risk) are
required to complete Part B only of the
individual initiative template. Part B is a ‘short
form’ business case for smaller investments.
The full business case template is based on the investment assessment checklist available on the
Investment Lifecycle and High Value High Risk Guidelines website (Stage 2: Prove), which poses key
questions that need to be addressed in developing a full business case.
Additional requirements for HV/HR proposals
HV/HR projects are required to undertake a two stage process for submitting full business cases.
1. Step one – submission of draft HV/HR business case for Treasurer’s deliverability
assessment: For HV/HR projects, departments must seek the Treasurer’s approval of the
business case before it can be submitted to DPC’s Cabinet Secretariat for BERC funding
consideration as part of the 2014-15 budget. To facilitate this, departments must ensure:

a Gateway review of the full business case has been completed (Gate 2); and

Recommended Action Plans (RAPS) for any red flag recommendations arising out of
Gate 2 Gateway reviews and a full business case (or at least a substantial draft full
business case) have been completed and submitted to DTF for the Treasurer’s
assessment of the business case robustness and deliverability.
The date for submission of the draft HV/HR submission to DTF is 10 January 2014 (5pm)
to ensure adequate time for DTF assessment of the business case and to obtain the
Treasurer’s approval of business case robustness and deliverability. This also allows for
time that may be needed to make any changes to the business case required to secure the
Treasurer’s HV/HR approval. Consistent with DTF’s project budgeting technical guidelines,
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departments should and DTF may request departments to undertake an independent/
external review of costing estimates. DTF may also commission an independent external
review of significant or technical issues in a business case, including costing estimates to
inform its deliverability assessment.
Draft business cases should be submitted to the relevant DTF Infrastructure Advice and
Delivery Assistant Director.
Departments are strongly encouraged to actively consult relevant DTF staff as business
cases are being developed to facilitate and expedite the HV/HR approval process.
2. Step two – submission of final asset business cases and cabinet submissions to be submitted
to DPC’s Cabinet Secretariat by 5pm on 31 January 2014.
Note, proposals will be assessed under the HV/HR process if:
a. they have a TEI greater than $100 million; OR
b. they are rated as ‘high-risk’ using the Gateway Project Profile Model; OR
c. BERC has determined that they warrant extra rigour; OR
d. departments agree with their DTF contact for assets (refer below) that the project should be
classified as HV/HR.
Resources to assist with full business case preparation
Please refer to DTF’s Investment Lifecycle and High Value High Risk Guidelines website (Stage 2:
Prove) for links to useful resources, including templates, guidance and tools for completing full
business cases.
4. Lodgement information
Lodgement of hardcopy and electronic asset, output and revenue submissions
For each department, asset, output and revenue submissions are to be lodged no later than 5:00pm
on 31 January 2014.
Submissions must be lodged electronically in SRIMS and in hardcopy. Electronic submissions must
be lodged at the same time as hard copy submissions. It is important that electronic submissions are
lodged by the due date as the budget briefings for BERC will be produced from SRIMS.
Sixteen hard copies of the signed submission (by the relevant Coordinating Minister), are required to
be lodged with DPC’s Cabinet Secretariat along with four compact disk or memory stick copies
containing the submission and all attachments. If the submission and attachment/s together total
over 500 sheets of paper, only six copies of the attachment/s are required to be lodged.
Questions in relation to BERC submissions:
Questions related to business case requirements for asset proposals and business cases
requirements for output proposals should be directed to the relevant DTF Relationship Manager.
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