Evidence that exists before you need it
Funding bodies and auditors ask about the past: what a road looked like before the flood, what was spent and under which program. The only time to create that evidence is before anyone asks.
Two moments when the past gets audited
Roads to Recovery. The Australian Government's Roads to Recovery Program provides $4.4 billion to councils over 2024–25 to 2028–29, rising to $1 billion a year from 2027–28. Under the 2024–29 operating procedures, councils keep their works schedule current, lodge expenditure reports in four periods a year, and submit an audited annual report by 31 October. That report includes an audited financial statement and a statement of accountability in which the chief executive or general manager declares its assertions are accurate, along with confirmation that proposed project outcomes were achieved.
Disaster recovery. When a declared disaster damages roads, claims to reconstruct essential public assets under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) must show the asset's condition before the event. The national guidance note on evidentiary requirements, published by the National Emergency Management Agency, accepts sources such as:
- photos or video whose metadata includes GPS coordinates and date;
- dated satellite or aerial imagery;
- maintenance records that identify the exact location, inspection date and work done;
- asset registers with location coordinates and key attributes;
- inspection reports by qualified people.
For local government assets, the guidance says pre-disaster evidence should be no older than four years before the event. It also stresses that location references, such as chainages and coordinates, should line up across all the evidence so each piece can be cross-referenced.
What good evidence has in common
Across both cases, the evidence that holds up is:
- Dated. Every condition rating, photo and work record carries the date it describes.
- Located. Records for the same stretch of road use the same location reference, so a survey, a repair and a damage report can be matched.
- Kept, not overwritten. Last year's condition is still retrievable after this year's survey loads. A register that only holds “current condition” cannot show the road as it was before the storm.
- Linked to money. Each piece of work records its cost, who funded it and the agreement or declaration it was done under.
- Recent enough. With a four-year limit for council evidence under the DRFA guidance, a survey cycle longer than four years leaves gaps.
A quick self-check
- Could you show a funding body the condition of a specific road on a date two years ago, with its source?
- Can you list every job done on that road since, with its cost and funding source?
- Do your survey, maintenance and works records use the same location reference?
- How much of your network has condition evidence less than four years old?
How PaveKeep handles this
PaveKeep can show the network as it stood on any past date: what an auditor or a funding body asks for when it reopens a claim. It keeps a chain from the survey, to the work done, to who paid for it, to the declaration it happened under. Its statutory and funding packs, covering what the network is worth, what work happened and who paid, and the state of the network on a chosen date, are produced from the same numbers rather than assembled separately.
PaveKeep produces the packs a council files; each funding body's current rules and forms still govern what must be submitted. It is built for small and regional councils and is not yet in use at any council.
Sources
- Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, Roads to Recovery Program and *Roads to Recovery 2024–29 Operating Procedures*.
- National Emergency Management Agency, *DRFA national guidance note: Evidentiary Requirements for EPA Reconstruction*.
This article summarises public guidance and is not legal or funding advice; check the current program and state guidance before lodging a claim.