A performance audit into whether all eight Government Departments used COVID-19 spending for stated purposes has found the Departments made extraordinary efforts to respond to the pandemic, however, not all effectively managed their spending.
Auditor-General, Andrew Greaves said his investigation and report, Management of Spending in Response to COVID-19, also examined HealthShare Victoria and the former Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
“Departments made extraordinary efforts to respond to COVID-19,” Mr Greaves said.
“Most Departments had gaps in how they used their critical incident process for COVID-19 procurement, such as poor documentation and inadequate consideration of conflicts of interest,” he said.
“Without strong processes, Departments cannot be certain that material fraud or corruption did not occur.”
Mr Greaves said four of the audited Departments managed their COVID-19 grants programs effectively, however, DHHS and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) did not put in place effective fraud controls at inception because they needed to set their programs up quickly.
The Auditor-General said that although DHHS and DJPR later tried to improve their controls, an internal review found DJPR still had gaps that risked fraud and waste.
“The central finance system that Government Agencies use is not designed to track specific funding initiatives, including those announced in response to the pandemic,” Mr Greaves said.
“This made it difficult for the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) to gain an accurate picture of whole-of-Government COVID-19 spending.”
He said DTF had since developed a new manual reporting approach which aimed to publicly report on total spend in response to COVID-19.
The Auditor-General made 16 recommendations to all the Departments, the Victorian Government Purchasing Board and the Victorian Public Sector Commission, focused on improving critical incident procurement processes, reviewing risks in grant programs and financial reporting.
The 95-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
