An audit of Treasury’s administration of the national corporation established to encourage investment in affordable housing has found it to be “partly effective”.
In his report, Administration of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, Auditor-General, Grant Hehir said the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) had been in operation since June 2018 to improve housing outcomes through increasing the supply of affordable housing.
Mr Hehir said NHFIC offered loans, investments, grants and loan guarantees to encourage investment in affordable housing.
“The administration of NHFIC is partly effective,” Mr Hehir said.
“NHFIC has incorporated design expectations into its strategies and has developed frameworks to deliver against its Investment Mandate,” he said.
“NHFIC’s implementation and reporting does not clearly demonstrate that it is achieving its purpose to ‘improve housing outcomes for Australians’.”
Mr Hehir said NHFIC had established mechanisms to monitor its performance and compliance against the Investment Mandate, however greater assurance was required to meet the obligations set out in its governance charters.
“The measuring and presenting of NHFIC’s delivery against its legislative object to ‘improve housing outcomes’ was not transparent in corporate plans and was ambiguous in information provided to the NHFIC Board for decision-making,” the Auditor-General said.
He made five recommendations to address deficiencies in NHFIC’s monitoring and reporting on its performance under a services agreement with Export Finance Australia; its risk management; its compliance management; and measuring and presenting its achievements in delivering ‘improved housing outcomes’.
Mr Hehir said his Report included a summary of key messages, including instances of good practice that may be relevant for the operations of other Australian Government entities.
The Auditor-General’s online report can be accessed at this PS News link and the 79-page printed report at this link.
The Audit team was led by Mark Rodrigues who was assisted by consultants.
