A performance audit into whether the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) was adequately supporting the provision of reasonable and necessary supports for participants has found it was not.
In his report, Decision-making Controls for NDIS Participant Plans, Auditor-General Grant Hehir said the NDIA didn’t have appropriate controls to ensure that supports in National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participant plans were reasonable and necessary.
“While an appropriate control framework had been established, the effective implementation of the controls will provide the NDIA with greater assurance that the supports approved in participant plans are reasonable and necessary,” Mr Hehir said.
“Effective implementation of controls will further assist the NDIA to manage risks relating to Scheme sustainability, while ensuring participants are receiving adequate supports,” he said.
“While the NDIA had established largely appropriate policies and processes for participant planning, the implementation of the policies and processes did not provide the NDIA with appropriate assurance that supports in participant plans are reasonable and necessary.”
Mr Hehir said NDIA didn’t have appropriate oversight mechanisms in place to ensure the supports in participant plans were reasonable and necessary.
“The NDIA has established some frameworks for oversight and control of decision-making for participant plans; however, to date, this is not systematically leading to enterprise wide actions for improvement and compliance in decision-making,” he said.
The Auditor-General made three recommendations, all of which the NDIA agreed to, aimed at improving policies and processes; continuous improvement processes; and performance monitoring and reporting.
The full audit report can be accessed online at this PS News link and the 68-page printed report at this link.
The Audit team was Freya Mathie, Samuel Painting, Hayley Pennock, Jennifer Zierk, Alexander Wilkinson, Scott Humphries, Joel Smith, and Peta Martyn.
