Here is a guide to Commonwealth right to repayment of grants and how to calculate the repayments
Commonwealth Government Right to Repayments
105. The Regulation (section 64) specifies the repayment periods and recoverable amounts on the calculated portion of the grant that will become repayable where, at any time during the Designated Use Period, the school ceases to provide primary/ secondary education:
106. Recovering capital funding when a school ceases to provide education
a) For subsection 109(4) of the Act, an amount (the capital funding amount) of financial assistance, mentioned in paragraph 109(4)(a) of the Act, that is provided for a school is recoverable if:
the capital funding amount is included in column 1 of an item of the table in this subsection; and
the school ceases to provide any primary education or secondary education in the period mentioned in column 2 of that item.
When a capital funding amount may be recovered
b) If the school ceases to provide primary education or secondary education during the first half of the period specified in column 2 of an item in the table in subsection (1), the amount specified under paragraph 110(1)(a) or (b) of the Act must not exceed the capital funding amount.
Note 1: Paragraphs 110(1)(a) and (b) of the Act allow the Minister to require a State or Territory to repay an amount and reduce the amount that is payable to a State or Territory.
Note 2: Subsections (2) and (3) are prescribed for subsection 110(3) of the Act.
c) If the school ceases to provide primary education or secondary education during the second half of the period specified in column 2 of an item of the table in subsection (1), the amount specified under paragraph 110(1)(a) or (b) of the Act must not exceed the amount that remains if, each year in the second half of the period, the capital funding amount were reduced by equal proportions.
Example: Financial assistance of $2 million is provided to a block grant authority to build a school building for a primary school. If the school ceases to provide primary education during the 10 year period after the financial assistance is provided, the entire amount may be recovered by the Commonwealth. For each year following that 10 year period, the amount that may be recovered by the Commonwealth reduces by 10%.
d) In determining a period for the purposes of subsection (2) or (3), round the period to the nearest full year.
Examples of the recoverable amount are set out in the table below:
Right to repayments prior to 2009
107. The right to repayment arrangements were varied in 2009. The following right to repayment arrangements apply where a grant was approved prior to the issue of the 2009 Administrative Guidelines: Commonwealth Programs for Non-Government Schools.
108. The Commonwealth retains for 20 years, from the date of completion of a project, a right to repayment from the non-government bodies of grants of more than $75,000, should they, within the 20 years, sell or otherwise dispose of the facilities or cease to use the facilities principally for the approved purpose.
109. The Calculated Portion of the Grant (i.e. the repayable amount) repayable to the Commonwealth is calculated as follows where a grant was approved prior to the issue of the Administrative Guidelines for 2009:
a) The Designated Use Period that the facility was used by the BGA Member for the Approved Purpose is:
20 years where the Facilities are buildings;
5 years for computer equipment; and
10 years for equipment other than computer equipment.
b) The Calculated Portion of the grant is calculated by applying a reduction of:
five per cent where the Facilities are buildings;
twenty per cent were the Facilities are computer equipment; and
ten percent where the Facilities are equipment other than computer equipment
to the Grant for each year during the Designated Use Period that the facility was used by the BGA Participant for the Approved Purpose.
110. It should be noted that, on or after the date of issue of the revised program guidelines for 2009, the equipment cost component of projects was assumed to be funded under the school contribution component of project funding and does not receive any special consideration with respect to shorter Right of Repayment time periods. Where this may unfairly disadvantage a school e.g. when the equipment cost component exceeds the school contribution, the BGA may seek the Department's approval in writing of a modified Right of Repayment arrangement for the project which takes the shorter effective life of equipment into account.