Financial Management

The Audit Act 2001 requires ASNO to submit an annual Financial Statement to the Auditor-General. As ASNO is funded as a division of DFAT, this financial statement is published in the DFAT Annual Report. Further details of ASNO activities relating to financial management and performance are also contained in the DFAT Annual Report.

Administrative Budget

During the second half of the financial year a decision was taken to reduce ASNO's budget for running costs (general) by more than $140,000. This decision was taken in response to the reduced travel requirements for ASNO in response to COVID–19. The figure in Table 22 reflects the reduced amount.

Table 22: **ASNO Administrative Costs:**
		2018–2019	2019–2020
Salaries		2,683,352	2,509,272
Running Costs	(General)	521,892	379,447
	Seismic monitoring¹	564,247	558,794
	Sub-Total	1,086,139	938,241
Total		$3,769,491	$3,447,513

Regulatory Reform

As a portfolio regulator with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in 2019–20 ASNO completed its fifth year of participation in the Government's Regulator Performance Framework.² The Government developed the Framework to measure the performance of regulators in regard to reducing the cost to business. The goal of the program is to measure and report performance that will give business, the community and individuals confidence that regulators effectively and flexibly manage risk.

The Framework consists of six mandatory outcome-based key performance indicators (KPIs) covering the reduction in regulatory burden, communications, risk-based and proportionate approaches, efficient and coordinated monitoring, transparency, and continuous improvement. ASNO has devised a set of seven metrics against the six KPIs outlined in Table 23 below.

Table 23 **ASNO Regulatory Performance Framework Metrics 2019–20**
Timely processing of permit applications and approvals.
Regulations and permits conditions are reviewed for clarity and suitability.
Implement risk informed regulatory program.
Establish streamlined compliance and inspection processes.
Outreach activities conducted to communicate regulatory requirements to stakeholders and receive feedback.
Meetings attended to influence international policy.
Engagement with other regulators to explore opportunities for regulatory efficiencies.

Uranium Producers Charge

ASNO is responsible for the Uranium Producers Charge. This charge is payable to Consolidated Revenue on each kilogram of uranium ore concentrate production (set on 1 December 2018 at 13.5502 cents per kilogram). The charge was not changed in 2019.

1 Undertaken by Geoscience Australia.

2 ASNO's full Regulator Performance Framework self-assessment reports can be found on the DFAT website.

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