Claiming National Land Transport Fund share in Transport Investment Online – processes and rules

This page relates to the 2024–27 National Land Transport Programme.

IntroductionBack to top

This page describes the process for claiming funding assistance for approved activities managed and delivered by approved organisations.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) activities are subject to the same criteria, except that the process involves NZTA (for its own activities) determining accrued expenditure based on certified invoices, certificates of work done or progress reports, and directly paying contractors, consultants and other service providers. Payments are made via NZTA finance systems and actual spend is uploaded to Transport Investment Online (TIO) during end-of-year processing.

Disbursement accountsBack to top

Every approved organisation must operate a land transport disbursement account in accordance with section 24 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003.

Land Transport Management Act 2003 s24(external link)

Claiming process and NZTA expectationsBack to top

Approved organisations must claim funding assistance from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) via TIO. See the claims user manual within TIO for details on how to create and submit a claim.

Transport Investment Online(external link)

We (NZTA as investor) expect that approved organisations will:

• claim funding assistance on accrued expenditure, being the estimated value of work completed in a period, rather than wait for the supplier invoice before making their claims
• submit regular claims through the year, usually monthly – more than one claim can be submitted each month but not until the previous claim has been authorised
• avoid leaving substantial claims to the end of each financial year and ensure that their June/July claims are less than 15% of the annual expenditure.

Certifying claimsBack to top

Unless we specifically require otherwise, payment of funding assistance is dependent on the person that certifies the claim accepting responsibility for the appropriateness of design and construction/implementation procedures, and the quality of materials used.

For approved organisations, the value of work claimed must be certified by the organisation’s chief executive or approved delegate in TIO when the claim is submitted. While it is not necessary to hold a supporting invoice at the time of the claim, all amounts claimed must be supported by appropriate evidence in the form of certificates of the value of work done or progress reports certified by the chief executive or an approved delegate. Supporting evidence is to be held within the organisation’s records.

The certification of the claim will be taken to certify that the works were undertaken to a standard fit for their intended purpose.

The Public Finance Act 1989, section 76, provides for the imposition of penalties on persons who give false certificates for the purpose of procuring for any programming organisation the improper payment of any public money.

Public Finance Act 1989 s76(external link)

Terms of tradeBack to top

Submitted claims are authorised by our regional representative and will be paid within 10 days of submission, unless we exercise our right to defer payment of June/July claims as set out below.

As set out in the National Land Transport Fund Investment Claims and Obligation Policy, we reserve the right to defer June/July payments in any year of those approved organisations where claims exceed 15% of their annual claims in their June/July claims. Application of these terms of trade will take into account any special requests by us on specific approved organisations to make late claims.

All approved organisations and NZTA (for its own activities) must forecast the timing and size of their claims or funding requirements, so that:

• they can manage forward funding requirements from rate payers, the NLTF and other sources, and
• we can effectively manage debt and cash flow.

National Land Transport Fund Investment Claims and Obligations Policy

Forecasting section of above policy

Note that we may reduce, refuse, or withhold payments in certain cases as set out in the Land Transport Management Act 2003, section 36.

Land Transport Management Act 2003 s36(external link)

Claims for advanced worksBack to top

If an approved project has an allocation in the following year but work has been advanced:

• a request to cashflow funds forward must be submitted by the 5th working day in July
• the request will be processed prior to the final claim being submitted.

Claimed expenditure on works in a previous financial year does not qualify for funding assistance in a subsequent year, except for:

• the situation described above,
• fees associated with development of indicative, detailed or single-stage business cases,
• land purchase costs associated with approved projects, and
• by agreement with us.

Supplementary allocationBack to top

A supplementary allocation is an increase in allocation for a stand-alone activity provided at the end of the financial year once the out-turn expenditure for that activity is known, and where it exceeds the current approved allocation.

Note that end- of-year increases for 3-year funded programmes must be processed as cash flows from the following year. If the increase is in the final year of a National Land Transport Programme (NLTP), then an increase will not be authorised and the claim should be held back until the following NLTP funds have been approved.

All supplementary requests are to be entered as cash flow advances except that, if insufficient allocation exists in forward years, the request should be for a cost/scope adjustment. If the increase is less than $50,000 (total cost for approval) for a stand-alone improvement activity and spend is complete, a formal request is not required and the investment advisor only needs to add a recommendation to TIO. Requests over $50,000 will be subject to the normal cost increase process.

Funding approvals (webpage yet to come)

A claim for the supplementary amount must be submitted as soon as the supplementary allocation is approved.

Maintenance, operations and renewals programme 2024–27Back to top

For the maintenance, operations and renewals programme for 2024–27 funds can only be claimed within the total amount for each activity class. Both the approved organisation and NZTA (for its own activities) should seek approval to transfer funds between activity classes within the programme before claims exceed the total for an activity class. The 7 activity classes within the maintenance, operations and renewals programme 2024–27 are:

• walking and cycling
• local road pothole prevention
• state highway pothole prevention
• local road operations
• state highway operations
• local road improvements
• state highway improvements.

Walking and cycling

Local road and state highway pothole prevention

Local road and state highway operations

Local road and state highway improvements

Final claims at financial year endBack to top

Final claims are those for payment of the cost of activities completed to 30 June within the approved allocation.

Final claims, including supplementary allocations, must be based on actual expenditure and must be made by the 10th working day in July, when the NZTA finance system closes. To achieve this, the following tasks and dates are important:

• 6^th working day in July:
  • submit final claims for emergency works if funding has been approved at higher funding assistance rate (FAR) and claims have been made at the higher FAR
    Work category 141: emergency works
  • submit requests for supplementary allocation
  • or, if the above is not required, create final claim for financial year and submit as soon as possible.
• 8^th working day in July:
  • NZTA staff evaluate and make recommendations for supplementary review requests which will be actioned in TIO within 24 hours of the recommendation.
• 9^th working day in July:
  •  final claims to be submitted in TIO.
• 10^th working day in July:
  • submitted claims to be authorised by NZTA staff
  • NZTA finance system closes
  • draft claims must be deleted.

Claims subject to auditBack to top

We will undertake periodic audits of selected claims. See the section on monitoring, reporting and assurance on this knowledge base for more detail.

2024–27 NLTP step 3: monitoring, reporting and assurance (webpage yet to come)

Our regional staff will regularly monitor the status of claims submitted and may ask to check the balance in the land transport disbursement account to ensure that large credit balances are not being held. An investment audit automatically follows in any case reported to us by the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General.

Investment audits (webpage yet to come)

Over-claims and refundsBack to top

Over-claims become a debt due to the Crown immediately upon establishment of the debt.

Where funds have to be repaid to the NLTP, either due to overclaiming or property settlements, these should always be set up in TIO and added to the next claim. The approved organisation’s NZTA investment advisor can provide guidance on how to do this for the particular scenario.