This page relates to the 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

This page provides information to approved organisations and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (for its own activities) on how unspent allocation is managed at the end of each financial year.

Further information on how the rules for end-of-year carryovers are applied to specific work categories is provided with the work category information.

Carryover within the three-year National Land Transport Programme

Unspent allocation can be carried over within the three years of the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP), but may be subject to our (Waka Kotahi as investor) approval.

As soon as it is known that there will an under spend within the current financial year, an application for a cashflow or cost scope adjustment should be made via the reviews module in Transport Investment Online (TIO) and will be approved by the Waka Kotahi Treasury & Cashflow team during normal fortnightly processing. Note that these adjustments are subject to the following conditions:

  • They must be able to be accommodated within funding constraints, for example when bringing funds forward from future years.
  • Funding for work category 216: Bridge and structures renewals must be unchanged unless approved by a Waka Kotahi investment advisor.
    WC 216: Bridge and structures renewals

TIO will automatically carry over any unspent allocation every year, provided the remaining funds are greater than $1000 (three-year funding allocations will remain unchanged). Therefore for anything greater than $1000 it is vital that approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) declare the unused allocation for completed projects by making a cost–scope adjustment via the reviews module in TIO.

TIO allows any phase to be marked as completed and automatically creates a review item to declare unclaimed funds as surplus.

Carryover to the next NLTP

For programmes (such as maintenance, public transport and low cost, low risk programmes) and particular activity types (activity management planning improvement and regional land transport planning management), unspent allocation does not carry over at the end of an NLTP and will be surplused. Therefore, approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) should monitor spend and, if necessary, surplus funds as soon as they are no longer required, rather than allowing large amounts of funds to remain unclaimed at the end of an NLTP.

Unspent allocation can be carried over to the next NLTP for the following project types which have funding approval:

  • road Improvements, public transport improvements and walking and cycling Improvements, excluding low-cost, low-risk funding
  • emergency works
  • programme business cases
  • transport model development.

Increases in total cost for committed projects

Small requests (currently less than $50,000 total cost for approval) to allow final invoices for a completed activity to be paid at the end of a financial year can be submitted in TIO and will be approved with the support of the Waka Kotahi investment advisor without the need for further documentation. However, if additional funds are subsequently required, the funding approvals process will apply and the total increase being requested must include the supplementary increase.

Funding approvals, cost changes and transport programme updates

If a cashflow request is submitted that includes an increase to the total cost, it will not be considered as part of the end-of-year carryover process. Organisations must submit these requests at the first review of the following year of the NLTP.

End of year/NLTP

To ensure all claims can be processed and funding assistance rates (FARs) can be updated to ensure that they are consistent with Waka Kotahi policy, all approved organisations must follow the end of year/NLTP instructions published by Waka Kotahi.

Further details on the process and timing of these claims are provided on this knowledge base.

Claiming via Transport Investment Online – processes and rules

Once Waka Kotahi financial systems close for year end, TIO will be temporarily unavailable for submitting funding requests or claims. However, requests for new or increased funding can proceed off-line and approved organisations should contact their Waka Kotahi investment advisor for guidance.