Built to
Standards, and parity with the incumbent
Grants administration rules from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, the audit findings that shaped them, and where each requirement shows up. Then a feature-by-feature comparison with the grants product most governments use today, and what MeshGov does beyond it.
Standards
| Standard | Source | Requirement | Where it shows up here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines (Australia) | CGRGs 2024, key principles and mandatory requirements | Robust planning and design; published guidelines and criteria; competitive, merit-based by default; conflicts managed; value with public money; decision makers record reasons and report decisions contrary to the recommendation; awards published; performance monitored. | Program objective and outcome indicator; round guidelines, eligibility and criteria as published configuration; non-competitive rounds must record why; assessment cites the published criteria only (GL-GR-02); decisions record reasons and any departure, with reporting where required (GL-GR-05); awards published on the round (GL-GR-06). |
| NSW Grants Administration Guide | Mandatory requirements 1 to 22 | Guidelines before opening; eligibility and assessment criteria published; conflicts of interest managed; ministers record reasons for departing from recommendations; grants published within 45 days; evaluation. | The same controls, with the publication window and the contrary-decision report on the decision record. |
| UK Grants Functional Standard (GovS 015) and minimum requirements | Cabinet Office Grants Management Function | Business case, competitive by default, due diligence proportionate to risk, payments in arrears against milestones, conflicts declared, performance monitoring, fraud and error controls, grant agreement. | Applicant due diligence and risk rating; payments in arrears only against an approved milestone report (GL-GR-04); fraud indicators hold for probity (GL-GR-07); agreement with milestones generated on award. |
| US Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200) | Federal financial assistance lifecycle | Merit review, risk assessment before award, cost allowability, performance and financial reporting, closeout within the required window, records retention. | Merit review with citations; risk rating from due diligence; budget-line reconciliation at acquittal; closeout checklist and reconciliation; every event on the evidence chain. |
| ANAO audit findings on grant administration | Performance audits of Commonwealth grant programs | Assess only against published criteria; document the basis of every score; record and report ministerial departures; do not fund ineligible applications; keep a complete record. | Eligibility determination with the clause for every test; merit scores each carry a citation; the decision record carries contrary reasons and reporting; the run timeline is the record. |
| Probity and conflicts of interest | CGRGs, NSW ICAC guidance, UK GovS 015 | Every assessor's interests declared and checked against every applicant before scoring; conflicts recorded and resolved by someone other than the assessor. | Interests register on each panel member; the agent checks every assessor against every applicant before scoring and recuses on a hit (GL-GR-03); the panel chair resolves. |
| Outcomes and evaluation | CGRGs 2024 (performance), Victorian Common Funding Agreement, outcomes-based grantmaking practice | Grants are judged on what they delivered against the program objective, not only on money spent. | Each program carries an outcome indicator; closeouts record the outcome result and move the indicator; the overview reports outcomes before activity. |
| Transparency and review | CGRGs (publication), FOI and information-access law, Ombudsman | Awards published; applicants told the outcome, the reasons and their feedback and complaint options. | Decision communications carry reasons and review rights; the publication step stamps every award; the applicant portal shows the full history. |
| Accessibility and plain language | WCAG 2.2 AA; ISO 24495-1 | Applicants and officers can use every screen with assistive technology; communications in plain language. | Interfaces designed against WCAG 2.2 AA with conformance evidenced per deployment; agent communications drafted in plain sentences. |
Parity with the incumbent grants product
Match first; then beyond
| Feature | Incumbent | MeshGov MG-02 | Beyond |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application forms | Form builder; forms per round | Form as configuration on the round, rendered by the portal | Eligibility criteria are tests the agent runs on lodgement, not questions an officer reads later. |
| Applicant portal | Applicant accounts, save and return, submission tracking | Portal: apply, see the full history and every communication, lodge milestone reports, request variations | Every message the agent or an officer sends is on the applicant's record. |
| Assessment | Assessor accounts, scoring sheets, weighted criteria, panels | Assessor scoring sheets alongside the agent's assessment; weighted criteria; panel pack | The agent scores every application against the published criteria with a citation for every score, ranked within the round, in minutes. |
| Conflicts of interest | Declarations | Interests register checked against every applicant before scoring; the chair resolves | Detected from the register, not only from a form. |
| Contracts and agreements | Contract management | Agreement generated on award with milestones and payments in arrears; variations decided by the delegate | |
| Acquittals and reporting | Acquittal forms, post-award reporting | Milestone reports reconciled to payments by the acquittal agent; late reports withhold the next payment and escalate | Reconciliation and chasing are automatic; the delegate only approves. |
| Outcomes | Outcomes engine | Program outcome indicator; closeouts record the result and move the indicator; outcomes reported first | |
| Analytics and reporting | Dashboards, reports, exports | Overview, lists, CSV export | Decisions contrary to recommendation, publication within the window and probity holds are first-class measures. |
| Governance and audit | Audit trail, user roles | Roles, delegations checked in code, guardrails, hash-linked evidence trail | A funding decision cannot be recorded by a role without delegation, or without reasons. |
| Security | ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified; Cyber Essentials Plus | Built to align with ISO/IEC 27001, Essential Eight, SOC 2, NIST CSF, OWASP LLM Top 10 and ISO/IEC 42001; certification status stated per deployment | |
| Multi-program administration | Programs and rounds | Funding sources, programs, rounds, multi-stage rounds (EOI then full) | |
| Services and training | Grantmaking services, training, institute | Made-to-measure configuration of rounds and rules on the platform subscription |