Memorial director Brendan Nelson said on Monday he had been told personally by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann that the gallery would not have to surrender to the Finance Department its donations from companies or philanthropists.

“Whilst the chairman and I appreciated and accepted the re-assurances of the previous government that the War Memorial would not be affected by this legislation, it is now very re-assuring that the new government and the finance minister in particularly has confirmed very publicly that the war memorial will be exempt,’’ Dr Nelson said.

“This has been a matter of ongoing concern and uncertainty for the council of the memorial and I am very pleased that it is now been put to rest.

“The finance minister called me this morning following the story in The Canberra Times and re-assured me the memorial would be exempt from this proposed provision.

“This is certainly the first time we have had a very public confirmation from a senior official let alone a minister [of the Coalition government] that we would be exempt.’’

Earlier, Dr Nelson revealed there was angst among cultural institutions about a proposed grab by the federal government for donations from companies and private philanthropists.

‘‘The thing that particularly concerned us was the idea that the Commonwealth would, on a nightly basis, sweep the accounts of all these government agencies and transfer those monies into the Commonwealth Department of Finance,’’ he said then.

He was particularly concerned about the plan because he had worked hard to secure private sector sponsorship for the memorial.

The proposal to sweep money held by government-funded or party-funded agencies into the national accounts every night was raised as part of legislation rushed through Parliament mid-year to improve accountability of agencies.

Memorial chairman Ken Doolan wrote in the memorial’s annual report, issued on Friday, of the ‘‘deleterious impact these proposals might have’’ on the operations of the institution.

Attempts were made to contact Senator Cormann’s office before publication of the initial article.

No response was received until a media statement was issued at noon on Monday, saying no money from donations would be taken from the war memorial.

‘‘The previous government explored the concept of sweeping for all government entities as an option but it was never pursued following feedback from stakeholders including the War Memorial,’’ the statement from Senator Cormann’s office said.