Public-Sector Financial Statement Close Recovery Leader — National Infrastructure

The mandate

The authority administers infrastructure grants and assets through multiple delivery agencies, but its close does not consistently separate departmental resources from administered flows, appropriations from earned funding, or capital work from grant expense. Asset confirmations and programme acquittals arrive after consolidation. The statutory reporting director departed after the national auditor escalated unsupported balances and timetable failure.

This nine-month appointment begins within two weeks and covers opening-balance repair, statutory year end, one subsequent interim close, audit clearance and permanent-leader induction. A new appropriation, programme variation, asset transfer, grant acquittal, machinery-of-government change or central-agency direction is a mandatory reporting trigger. Six weeks are protected for handover, with no extension into budget-policy development.

Exit requires reconciled appropriations, controlled departmental and administered ledgers, complete grant and asset populations, supported commitments and contingencies, approved accounting positions, timely schedules, issue ageing and two full closes within tolerance. The successor must process an unseen programme transfer with unspent appropriation and partially completed assets, then defend treatment to the Audit and Risk Committee.

The interim may reject incomplete programme packs, freeze unsupported journals, set close directions, require accountable officer certifications, appoint temporary workstream leads and control A$22 million within the recovery allocation. The Chief Finance Executive retains accounting policy and statements; programme executives own delivery facts; central agencies retain budget authority; internal and national auditors maintain independent scope and conclusions.

Policy design, ministerial advice, programme evaluation, grant-award decisions, engineering certification, procurement and replacement of core government systems are outside scope. The leader may demand financial evidence but cannot change appropriation purpose or programme outcomes. Unsupported assets and grant acquittals stay visible until resolved; deadline pressure does not authorise residual balancing or undocumented classification.

Why this seat is open

Distributed programme delivery outgrew the authority’s ability to convert appropriation, grant and asset evidence into one controlled statutory close, then the reporting leader departed during audit escalation. Temporary authority must restore the timetable and evidence chain without crossing into policy or audit, and qualify a durable public-sector successor.

What you will own

• Reconcile appropriations, cash drawdowns, departmental funding, administered receipts and unspent authority by legal purpose.
• Separate controlled and administered items across programmes, grants, assets, liabilities, commitments and contingencies.
• Establish accountable certifications for grant eligibility, milestone completion, asset existence and programme obligations.
• Govern capitalisation, asset transfers, work in progress, impairment, depreciation and delivery-agency information.
• Direct close calendars, audit schedules, issue clearance, late-adjustment routes and central-agency reporting alignment.
• Exercise a programme transfer, appropriation lapse, disputed grant acquittal, incomplete asset and late legal claim.
• Transfer recovered reporting after two complete closes and successor defence of an unfamiliar machinery-of-government event.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior statutory-reporting authority in a national department, infrastructure authority or similarly complex public body.
• Reconciled appropriations, departmental and administered items, grants, programmes and public assets under audit deadlines.
• Governed machinery-of-government changes, programme transfers, asset evidence and central-agency reporting requirements.
• Recovered a delayed public-sector close without masking unsupported balances through residual or policy-driven classification.
• Preserved boundaries among Finance, programme management, central agencies, ministers and independent national audit.
• Handed restored statutory reporting to permanent leadership through live close and transfer scenarios.

Non-negotiables

• Available within two weeks for full-time Canberra service through statutory year end, audit and successor overlap.
• Direct public-sector financial-statement recovery experience is required; commercial controllership alone is insufficient.
• No undisclosed relationship may involve delivery partners, grant recipients, system vendors or assurance providers.
• Will preserve unsupported programme and asset balances as explicit exceptions despite statutory timetable pressure.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a public-sector balance misclassified between departmental and administered activity.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you close statutory accounts when a delivery agency provided incomplete asset evidence?
3. 49 words maximum. Which programme-transfer scenario would you use to test the permanent reporting leader?