The Western Australian Auditor General, Caroline Spencer has included several recommendations in her latest report to Parliament to help the public sector improve its administration of grants programs.
Ms Spencer said only two of eight sampled State Government entities demonstrated sound grant administration policies, practices and controls.
“Our audit tested some $30 million of grants across more than a dozen programs, worth almost $300 million over two financial years,” Ms Spencer said.
‘The quality of grants administration in WA is variable and our audit found gaps in entities’ policies and procedures, assessments of grant applications and monitoring of grants.”
She said the findings were not entirely surprising as Western Australia operated without an agreed grants framework, including for election commitments.
“The findings in this audit and observations from our other audit work indicate that, while some entities and officers are adept in their practices, grant administration across the WA public sector generally needs improvement,” the Auditor General said.
She said the report also includes a case study into the Albany Wave Energy Technology Development Project.
“The project, unlike most others in the audit sample, was based on an election commitment and it received significant Parliamentary and public interest,” Ms Spencer said.
“The case study demonstrates the difficulties entities face with administering election commitment grants in the absence of clearly established rules, requirements or guidelines.”
She said that in addition to her recommendations for improvement, the report included better practice guidance which State and Local Government entities could adopt to improve their administration of grants.
The Auditor General’s 20-page report No. 12: 2020-21 Grants Administration can be accessed at this PS News link and the audit team was Subha Gunalan, Tim Hughes, Vanessa Sprunt and Financial Audit directors and teams.
