Dept of Community Development, Sport & Cultural Affairs

The Client

The Department of Community Development, Sport & Cultural Affairs (DCDSCA) was formed in November 2001. The new Department amalgamates a number of pre-existing Agencies, namely Arts & Museums, Local Government, Territory Housing, Sport & Recreation and the Office of Aboriginal Development. DCDSCA also has responsibility for the Strehlow Research Centre, Library and Information Services, Aboriginal Essential Services and Regional Development.

The Department provides enhanced emphasis and coordination of services to promote and develop the Territory community. Their vision is to build strong and creative communities in the Northern Territory. They work towards this goal by building partnerships with both urban and remote communities to achieve improved outcomes.

The Challenges

Creating a system that can be applied across all Divisions and encompass all grant types for Grant Application Management. The various divisions within the Department all approach the management of their grant programs differently, although the processes utilised are markedly similar. The system needed to be versatile and adaptable to allow for diversity in assessment and appraisal processes (e.g. Arts Grants Board).

The Department currently utilises an Oracle based application called Community Information Access System (CIAS). One of the modules within this system handles the payment of grants. CIAS has proved to be robust and meets the needs of the Department in relation to grants payments and acquittals.

(Return to top)

The Solution

The Grants Registration and Assessment Database (GRAD) facilitates processing of the receipt, assessment and approvals of applications for funding under guidelines issued by Sport and Recreation. GRAD has been initially developed to process the 2003/2004 funding year.

The system processes the initial three stages of the total grants management cycle, including:

• The receiving of applications. This involves the actual receiving and receipting of the applications, and capturing core data such as organisational and contact details, funding requests, project expectations and outcomes, and supporting document associations.
• The assessment process. A number of assessments can be performed against each application, including a standard assessment against a pre-defined set of criteria. This will result in a ranking of the applications.
• Approving or rejecting applications. Approval of applications will either be at the ministerial level, or senior management within the Department. Approval and rejection letters can be generated, and for successful applications Partnership Agreements are produced. The Partnership Agreements reference generic information and agreement conditions specific to the project.

A number of peripheral functions are also required to assist with the process, including an organisation and contact directory, automatic generation of word documents, including the production of Partnership Agreements, and the initiation of the concept of a Program under which the successful applications are managed.

The Technology

Oracle 8 database
Designer/2000 and Developer/2000
Office 97 connections

The Services

Technical Development
User Interface Design
System Documentation
Testing
Training
Ongoing Support

(Return to top)

Return to Government Sector...