An audit of the Department of Communities’ services to remote Aboriginal communities has found a general improvement, while the risk of access to unsafe drinking water remains.
Auditor General, Caroline Spencer tabled the Delivering Essential Services to Remote Aboriginal Communities – Follow-up Report, saying the Department had made progress on all six recommendations from the previous audit in 2015.
“We found power and water supplies to remote communities were more reliable, wastewater services were more consistently monitored and more communities had clean drinking water,” Ms Spencer said.
“However, 37 communities we looked at in 2015 still had water that did not meet Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and in 44 of the smallest communities (all formerly-Commonwealth-managed) the water is not being tested for microbes.”
She said since the last audit, the Remote Service Level Guidelines for Essential Services in Remote Settlements in Western Australia, which outlined service delivery levels and standards for water, wastewater and power, had been finalised.
“However, the Department is not transparent in how it applies the service level criteria it uses and its documentation of decisions affecting remote communities is poor,” Ms Spencer said.
“It is hard for Aboriginal communities to assess the services they receive as there is a lack of public reporting on service delivery performance and no formal process to raise concerns.”
She said the report included recommendations to assist the Department improve the delivery of services, including regular testing of water quality, improved transparency around performance and planning to address priority risk areas.
The Auditor General’s 42-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
The audit team was Andrew Pope, Jeremy Bean, Nadia Donatelli, Justin Fairhead, Rachael Wilkins, Jo Stapley, Jacqueline Richards and Russell Butler.
