Originally Posted by Unregistered

U ought to ask the HR person for answers to Question 1.
btw, when was your panel interview done?
And to reach even conditional offer stage, background screening or known as G50 form screening need to be done and completed with no red flags then they will give u a provisional offer.
Duration to clear the screening checks can vary depending on the Cat level u r required to clear by the ministry or stat board.

Verbal (very cringey alternative to the term provisional/conditional) offer likely will be there if u tick the boxes in the list.
If u like what they provisionally offer u, they will then onward proceed to put up submission to Perm Sec level to formalise the posting

However golden rule.
so long as nothing appears in B&W ie written offer, there's always caveat that it may still be rescinded or retracted or U-turn at a latter stage.