An audit of the implementation of the Department of Health’s anti-drug National Ice Action Strategy (NIAS) has found it to be ‘partly effective’.
In his audit, National Ice Action Strategy Rollout, Auditor-General, Grant Hehir found that while the Department had established appropriate governance arrangements to support implementation of the NIAS, it “did not plan for implementation effectively”.
“While Australian Government funding to the alcohol and other drug sector has been increased and actions have been progressed, there is no monitoring to assess whether progress is being made towards the strategy’s goal of reducing the prevalence of ice use and resulting harm across the Australian community,” Mr Hehir said.
“The Department of Health’s implementation of the National Ice Action Strategy is partially effective.”
The auditor noted Health had delivered, or was in the process of delivering, the 19 actions it had responsibility for.
“Although the Department monitors the activities of Primary Health Networks, it has not finalised a quality and assurance framework that would allow it to assess that Primary Heath Networks are effectively commissioning, monitoring and evaluating alcohol and other drug services,” Mr Hehir said.
“The Department does not have an evaluation approach in place for the NIAS and is not monitoring progress towards the goal and objective.”
He said public reporting by the Department did not currently provide sufficient transparency about how implementation was progressing or what progress was being made.
The audit made five recommendations all of which were agreed to by the Department of Health.
The Auditor-General’s online report can be accessed at this PS News link and his 70-page printed report accessed at this link.
The audit team was Ailsa McPherson, Tracy Cussen, Christine Preston, Michael Fitzgerald, Hannah Climas and David Brunoro.
