Accountability and reporting

NHMRC corporate reporting

The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 (NHMRC Act) requires the CEO to develop a corporate plan setting out:

• the CEO’s assessment of the major national health issues that are likely to arise during the period
• the manner in which the CEO proposes to perform his or her functions in dealing with those issues during the period
• a national strategy for medical and public health research.

The corporate plan must also meet the requirements for corporate plans set out in the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).

As a Commonwealth entity, NHMRC must also prepare an annual report for the Minister of Health to table in Parliament.

Other reporting requirements: 

• Annual Child Safety Statement (available in our Annual report)
• Copyright 
• FOI requests
• Fraud control
• Information publication scheme
• Media releases
• NHMRC Audit Committee
• Privacy practices
• Public Interest Disclosure

Procurement and Contracts

Australian Government terms and conditions for the supply of goods and services

The Australian Government terms and conditions that apply to goods and services ordered through a purchase order can be downloaded from Department of Finance

Work health and safety requirements for contractors and suppliers

Tenders

Details of all of NHMRC's current tenders can be found on the Australian Government tender website AusTender.

Annual Procurement Plan

To view NHMRC's Annual Procurement Plan please go to the Australian Government tender website AusTender.

Contracts

Senate Order 192 on departmental and agency contracts sets out contracts entered into by NHMRC which provide for a consideration to the value of $100,000 (inc GST). 

Most of the contracts listed contain confidentiality provisions of a general nature that are designed to protect the confidential information of the parties that may be obtained or generated in carrying out the contract and are not reportable on AusTender. 

However requirements to maintain the confidentiality of information obtained or generated as a result of performance of a contract only where a contract clause has sought to protect specific information such as:

• costing/profit information
• trade secrets
• Privacy Act 1988

The contract amounts are reported in line with Department of Finance requirements. The amounts show the total expected expenditure over the whole life of the contract.

All procurement contracts can be found through AusTender.

Estimated cost of complying with this policy: $3590

This estimate was achieved by calculating the total time staff spent collecting, preparing and verifying the information at their relevant hourly rate of pay.

Departmental and agency approved grants (Senate Order 16 Listing, Minchin Motion)

As of May 2023, NHMRC no longer publishes the tabled Senate Order 16 – Departmental and Agency Grants (Minchin Motion) data on our website.

To view Grant contracts including those meeting the requirement of Senate Order 16 – Departmental and Agency Grants (Minchin Motion) can be viewed by visiting GrantConnect.

As per the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines, grants must be published on GrantConnect within 21 days of the grant agreement taking effect and this listing may be revised within GrantConnect over time as information is able to be published. In addition, all grants awarded by NHMRC are published on the NHMRC website.

To see details of Senate Order 16 – Minchin Motion, please visit the Parliament of Australia website at Orders for documents – Parliament of Australia.

Older reports are available below or on the National Library of Australia's web archive. 

Legal services expenditure

The table below outlines the NHMRC’s legal services expenditure for 2023-24, in compliance with paragraph 11.1(ba) of the Legal Services Directions 2017.

(all figures are GST exclusive)