News

ACNC grace period coming to an end - what you need to know

15
September
2020

The ACNC’s special Covid-19 approach to certain breaches of the Governance Standards and External Conduct Standards are coming to an end on 25th September 2020.

What this means is they have given some leeway on minor compliance problems for the 6 months prior in recognition of Covid-19 related challenges to operations for charities.

While they continue to uphold public trust and confidence in the sector; they recognise there may be valid reasons for minor breaches, and will work with charities to get them back on track. But this grace period is coming to an end – and charities must ensure their house is in order.

Monitoring programs on certain breaches will be back on on the 25th. But if there are significant breaches which harm vulnerable people, risk significant charity assets, or where there is evidence of serious mismanagement or misappropriation – then the ACNC will take a different response as outlined here.

Time to review practices ASAP

Your organisation may have been challenged significantly during the last 6 months.

It is always best to be on the front foot with the Regulator, and your organisation’s Responsible People must chart an appropriate course of action. This is especially so if your organisation has incurred debts and runs the risk of trading insolvent under Governance Standard 5 as the temporary six-month period of relief for directors from their personal liability to prevent insolvent trading comes to an end.