The Ministers Guide to Financial Counseling: Managing Money in the 21st Century

A barge is a broader ft wide cargo-carrying boat - normally towed but sometimes self-powered. The version with accommodation is usually a Dutch barge. A cruiser is the white-hulled GRP glass-reinforced plastic style of boat, more commonly seen on rivers; smaller versions are cabin cruisers.

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Canary Wharf the whole development, not the main tower, which is 1 Canada Square. Canute c Danish king of England, Denmark and Norway who commanded the tide to turn back, so the legend says — not in a vain attempt to exercise power over nature, but to prove to his toadying courtiers that he was not all-powerful. Times have changed since the days of medieval manuscripts with elaborate hand-illuminated capital letters, or Victorian documents in which not just proper names, but virtually all nouns, were given initial caps a Tradition valiantly maintained to this day by Estate Agents.

A look through newspaper archives would show greater use of capitals the further back you went. The tendency towards lowercase, which in part reflects a less formal, less deferential society, has been accelerated by the explosion of the internet: Our style reflects these developments. We aim for coherence and consistency, but not at the expense of clarity.

As with any aspect of style, it is impossible to be wholly consistent — there are almost always exceptions, so if you are unsure check for an individual entry in this guide. But here are the main principles:. Lowercase for translations of government departments in non-English-speaking countries, eg French foreign ministry, Russian ministry of emergency situations, etc.

See departments of state for a full list of British ones. Books, films, music, works of art, etc have initial caps except a, an, and, at, for, from, in, of, on, the, to except in initial positions or after a colon , eg There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. Those that retain a strong link, which may be legally recognised, include Cornish pasty, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Parma ham, Jersey Royal potatoes and Worcestershire sauce, and take initial cap.

Although champagne and scotch are legally required to come from Champagne and Scotland, they are almost universally regarded as lc.

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• Luna de miel de un millonario (Miniserie Bianca) (Spanish Edition);
• Ping 2 - Les Impatiences de Ping (French Edition).
• Broken Promise (Choices).
• Bennett (The Chronicles of the White Tower Book 2).

The caption tells us: You would, sadly, be wrong. Cat scan or CT scan ; it stands for computerised axial tomography. It is in the south, not the centre of the country. Channel Islands British crown dependencies grouped for administrative purposes into two bailiwicks, each with its own bailiff chief justice: It describes the behaviour of dynamic systems that are sensitively dependent on their initial conditions.

An example is the weather: Charter of the United Nations but UN charter is normally sufficient; chapter 1, etc not roman numerals. There is just one, namely: The Internet Watch Foundation says: Laughing when someone breaks wind is childish; laughing when someone is flying a kite is childlike. Chinese names Mainland China: For people with Chinese names elsewhere in the world, follow their preference — but make sure you know which is the surname.

Christian name use first name, forename or given name which in many cultures comes after the family name. Chumbawamba not Chumbawumba band whose guitarist, Danbert Nobacon, threw a bucket of iced water over John Prescott, the then deputy prime minister, at the Brit awards. Cites convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora.

Citizens Advice what the organisation likes to be called, although it still runs bureaux. Clapham Junction and Clapham are two distinct, separate areas of south London. Clapham Junction should be called just that: It is part of Battersea and comes under Wandsworth council. Clapham is about a mile and a half away, also has its own high street, and is part of Lambeth council.

The former is used to describe a notable example of a particular era or style. Irrespective of this later analysis, the information would have provided a basis for more comprehensive advice to decision makers. The Committee understands that project proponents are unlikely to want to put forward documentation casting doubt on the need for Commonwealth infrastructure funding when they are seeking funding. However, it remains important that, where something as critical as a financing strategy has been developed and referenced in project documents, at a minimum, departments should insist that it be provided as a pre-condition of project consideration.

A requirement that project proponents identify alternative funding strategies to a Commonwealth contribution and include analysis of why Commonwealth funding is the most appropriate option would provide a stronger starting point for assessment. The Committee recommends that the administrative guidelines for loans that the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development is developing in response to Recommendation 1 in Audit Report No.

The original timeline contained much uncertainty as it was developed prior to receiving planning approval, and prior to negotiations with constructors and financiers. It is not realistic to assume that the original timeline would not have changed as a result of the negotiations with financiers and constructors and the obtaining of required approvals.

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Given these risks, it was incumbent on DIRD to relay specific advice to its Ministers about the achievability of project acceleration. This is a key issue for DIRD to focus on in future assessments of infrastructure acceleration proposals and reflect in its advice to Ministers.

The Committee is also concerned that DIRD agreed key terms and conditions of the loan quite soon after the funding decision and, with one exception, in advance of engaging advisors. The Committee recommends that the Auditor-General consider conducting a performance audit into whether the advice supporting the concessional loan provided for the Sunshine Coast Airport expansion project appropriately reflected learnings from the deficiencies in advice identified in Audit Report No.

This section reviews the evidence received by the Committee regarding the advice that was provided by DIRD to Ministers in relation to funding approved for the East West Link and WestConnex projects, including: In contravention of this policy the incoming Coalition Government took decisions in finalising the May Budget to allocate funding to both projects.

IA is an independent statutory body established to improve the quality of infrastructure planning and investment strategy in Australia. The framework used to compile the Infrastructure Priority List takes account of the economic, social and environmental impact of both the problem being addressed, and the infrastructure solution being proposed. The Auditor-General has previously found that IA applies a rigorous process to scrutinizing projects, including: Both the East West Link and WestConnex projects had undergone limited assessment by IA when the decisions to allocate funding to the projects were made by the Commonwealth.

For the WestConnex project, IA had previously examined a submission provided by the NSW Government in October which did not include a business case and its analysis was that the project was at a formative stage of development. As Budget Paper 1 from outlines, the Australian economy was in the midst of a major transformation, moving from growth led by investment in resource projects to broader-based drivers of activity in non-resources sectors. This was occurring at a time when the economy had generally been growing below its trend rate and the unemployment rate had been rising.

Furthermore, the outlook for investment in engineering construction was forecast to decline by 13 per cent in —15 and Once you get past that stage, the projects still need to go through the process of detailed reference design.

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With a complex and large project of this nature, that can be an extended and iterative process. Prior to these decisions, DIRD provided Ministers with advice on the timing of payments relating to projects that had been election commitments. At the public hearing, there was interest in identifying and quantifying any costs to taxpayers of making advance payments for the projects. At the time of approving funding and making payments for the projects, there were three relevant legislative requirements: In relation to the FMA Regulations, advice was not provided because the spending proposals were approved by the Prime Minister as part of Budget considerations.

A key way in which compliance with the criteria set out in the land transport legislation is documented is through the development of a project approval instrument.

The instrument is a formal document signed by a Minister under the land transport legislation to approve funding for a project. Following the funding decisions, DIRD provided a briefing to its Minister, with recommendations to sign four project approval instruments, including those relating to the East West Link and WestConnex projects. The instruments set out that the Minister was satisfied each project was eligible and appropriate for approval under the relevant sections of the legislation. The difficulty there is that from the department's perspective the decision had been made to commit funds to the project.

Therefore they did not think it was worthwhile undertaking an assessment against the legislative criteria after the event, so they did not do so. This was a critical decision, because the ANAO has identified that at least one of the legislative conditions had not been met at the time of the advice. This related to the listing of the project on the National Land Transport Network. At the public hearing, the ANAO noted that departments should take responsibility for providing advice which would allow governments to address statutory requirements after funding commitments are made: It is difficult, as you say, when systems and processes designed to manage the risks are not followed.

We recognise here in both cases governments have made decisions to commit funding to projects at a fairly early stage, but there is a distinction … between a commitment to … a project at a concept stage and, almost, partitioned money within the infrastructure investment program to be available for that project versus the statutory approval processes which then subsequently follow to have actual money approved under legislation which is then followed by a project approval instrument being signed … [T]hat distinction is quite important to then understand how departments, once they have received … the commitments government has made and wants to see delivered upon, then advise how to proceed with delivering on those commitments in a way which meets the requirements of statute.

The authority required for the payment of project funds is an end point in the assessment and approval processes, relying on the decisions made under the two preceding legislative processes. The processes involved in obtaining documentation and assessing the merits of infrastructure projects provide key details that are required to support subsequent administrative activities.

One of these activities is the development of project approval instruments under the land transport legislation. The way the system is documented and designed to work is that … [the instruments] … are developed after the Commonwealth has a significant amount of information on a project. Ordinarily, if projects proceed through expected processes, the Commonwealth should know enough to be able to put the detail in … the project approval instruments. The problem is that in these cases, when a project is approved earlier than that information is to hand, it is very difficult to put specifics in there.

At the time that Ministers approved funding for the two projects, key project documents either were not yet available or had not yet been assessed: The Victorian Government had recently submitted a project proposal report for stage one of the East West Link project but not stage two and DIRD had only undertaken limited departmental analysis of its contents; 56 and. The report was eventually approved in June As originally signed, the project approval instruments inadequately set out the works that Commonwealth funding could be used for, and any project costs that were not to be met from the Commonwealth funding.

This situation reflected that specific information on the two stages of the project was not available at the time the advance payments were made. The level of detail in the East West Link project approval instruments became quite important, in terms of the capacity to recoup funding, when DIRD identified risks such as unresolved legal challenges and the potential for the East West Link project being cancelled. In response, DIRD developed an amendment to the instrument for stage one of the project, to more clearly define what Commonwealth funding could and could not be used for.

One of the key changes was to exclude Commonwealth funding being used as payment for any penalties, legal costs or court ordered costs if the project was delayed or cancelled.

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This reflects that more precise information on the scope for that stage was not available, and the procurement processes for the work had not proceeded to a stage where there was any risk of contract payments being required in the event the project was delayed or cancelled. The advice DIRD provided to its Ministers reflected these priorities, focusing on the benefits of establishing a concessional loan for stage two of the WestConnex project, including: Advice on further issues could have provided Ministers with a sound basis on which to make decisions.

DIRD sought and obtained approval to negotiate such options for certain projects, including WestConnex, both before and after the September election. This can be seen in: In their own frameworks, these principles are central to maximising the outcomes achieved from limited Commonwealth resources, but they have wider relevance. Importantly, they place an onus on those supporting decision makers to consider and provide clear advice on the additional outcomes to be achieved.

In this context, there was interest at the public hearing in whether the loan was actually needed. A starting point for such a consideration is whether DIRD gathered available information and sought advice to appropriately inform itself about the financing options available to the project and the benefits claimed to be provided by committing funding for a concessional loan. The ANAO noted that the strategy document was an attachment to the project business case.

The Department did not share the view that a construction firm would be willing to enter into a construction contract prior to all funding being secured given the uncertainty in the value of Stage 1 at the time Stage 2 was proposed to be contracted. A related issue to be considered in advice on the merits of a proposal to accelerate a project is an assessment of whether the acceleration period is realistic. In the case of WestConnex, stage two of the project is not on track to be completed up to two years earlier than planned.

In the context of the lengthy approvals, compulsory acquisitions of property, and consultation processes that must be undertaken in respect to an infrastructure project of this size, committing to an accelerated delivery of up to 24 months was too optimistic. Therefore, it is our view that that concessional loan allowed the two stages of the project to actually proceed in parallel, rather than one following the other, as was the original strategy in that regard.

Certainly during the process of developing the loan, the timeframe for WestConnex has taken longer to come to market and start construction than was originally envisaged. But I do not think that was the problem of the concessional loan. That simply reflected the design and procurement work which needed to be undertaken.

The need to establish adequate lead times for infrastructure projects is a theme highlighted by DIRD in Recent transport construction statistics suggest that when investment in transport infrastructure by governments increases, private sector investment slows, indicating a fixed growth capacity in the market. In addition, recent spikes in government investment in transport infrastructure and are associated with spikes in construction prices.

This highlights the need for government to coordinate investments and to provide industry with adequate lead times for any new investments. By that time, the department had engaged only one of its six external advisors, a commercial and financial services advisor. An area of interest to the Committee in the public hearing was the extent to which DIRD had considered and provided Ministers with comprehensive advice about the full value of the concession being applied to the loan and the risks of the loan.

It is easy to say there is a concessional loan, but there are many aspects of a loan where you can offer concessions. In this case, there is the interest rate less than the market. We capitalise interest for a longer period than the private-sector borrowers do. There is the tax issue.