The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Services Australia’s management of Smart Centres’ telephony services.

Services Australia operates the largest contact centre in the southern hemisphere with over 79 smart centres across Australia delivering telephony and processing services for Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, and surge services for Department of Veterans’ Affairs and whole of government activities. In 2022–23 Services Australia reported that it handled 55.2 million calls. In October 2023, Services Australia informed Parliament that over 9,400,000 customers were booked into virtual waiting rooms and the longest wait time was almost 3 hours, over 9 million customers received congestion messaging and over 4 million calls were terminated by the customer. In the 2024–25 Federal Budget, the government announced $1.8 billion over three years from 2023–24 for additional frontline staff to help stabilise Services Australia claims backlog and service standards.

Services Australia’s reported in its 2022–23 Annual Performance Statements that it partially achieved its strategic performance measure of 70 per cent of customers served within 15 minutes. Services Australia also reported that the performance result may have been impacted by the lack of system functionality to combine call wait times once a call had been transferred.

The audit would follow-on from Auditor-General Report No. 28 2018–19 Management of Smart Centres’ Centrelink Telephone Services — Follow-up which contained two recommendations relating to monitoring and reporting on effectiveness of digital service delivery and wait times and finalising the review of key performance indicators.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of Defence’s management of the disposal of specialist military equipment (SME).

As at 30 June 2023, Defence reported that it managed $136.3 billion of total assets, including $84.3 billion of specialist military equipment. When one of these items is no longer suitable for or is surplus to Defence’s requirements, Defence disposes of it by either: transferring it to an Australian government agency or another government, selling it, gifting it or destroying it. An audit would examine whether the disposal of selected SME was conducted in accordance with Defence policy and applicable Commonwealth legislative requirements.

The audit would assess the effectiveness of the National Indigenous Australians Agency’s (NIAA’s) management of the regional network, including whether the regional network is achieving its objectives.

The NIAA administers the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS). The IAS is supported by the NIAA’s regional network, which aims to position senior decision makers close to the people and communities they work with, in order to develop and implement local solutions to improve outcomes for Indigenous Australians. Auditor-General Report No. 7 2018–19 Management of the Regional Network found that the effectiveness of the management of the regional network was mixed, and the full potential of the regional network to facilitate the design and delivery of local solutions to local problems was not being maximized.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) in managing its backlog of compensation claims under the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986, the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004.

DVA is responsible for processing veteran compensation claims for liability, permanent impairment and incapacity. As at September 2022, DVA had a backlog of 45,226 compensation claims (claims not allocated to a claims officer). The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide’s August 2022 Interim Report included a recommendation for DVA to eliminate the claims backlog. The Australian Government agreed to the recommendation. The Australian Government provided $298 million over four years (across October 2022–23 and May 2023–24 Federal Budgets), to employ 500 additional frontline staff to process claims and maintain a skilled workforce. As at 30 April 2024, DVA had allocated 94.3 per cent of the backlog identified by the Royal Commission (41,799) and there were 73,590 claims with a claims officer for processing.

This audit would assess whether entities’ procurement activities have been conducted in accordance with relevant Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

The National Intelligence Community (NIC) was officially formed in 2017 and comprises agencies from the Home Affairs, Defence, Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolios. This audit would examine whether selected NIC entities have appropriately managed the procurement of major capabilities. It would include procurements used to develop capabilities of individual NIC agencies, as well as those that are for a shared capability across the sector.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) procurement arrangements. This audit would examine whether the NDIA had a fit for purpose procurement framework and whether procurements have been conducted in accordance with the framework. The NDIA is a corporate Commonwealth entity (CCE) not bound by the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. For the 2022–23 financial year the NDIA published details of contracts to the value of $4.7 billion, of which $2.7 billion was for Partners in the Community contracts, $102,233,103 for legal services and $10,790,211 for consultancy services. The NDIA is expected to undertake procurement for new Partners in the Community contracts ahead of the expiry of current contracts in June 2025.

In 2005, a 12-year $106 million contract was entered into by the Australian Government for helicopter response, surveillance and logistics support missions to prevent people smuggling and manage other maritime threats across the North West approaches of Australia. The term of the contract is due to expire in 2024 at an estimated total cost of $182 million. The Department of Home Affairs’ Annual Procurement Plan includes conducting a procurement in 2023—24 to replace this contract.

As set out in Auditor-General Report No. 6 2021–22, Management of the Civil Maritime Surveillance Services Contract the rotary wing contract is the second and smaller of two contracts the department has in place for aerial surveillance. The procurement process for, and management of, the rotary wing services contract was not examined in Auditor-General Report No. 6 of 2021–22 Management of the Civil Maritime Surveillance Contract. The conduct of the procurement of a new contract for rotary wing surveillance, response and logistic support services will provide an early indication of whether lessons have been learned from the management of the civil maritime surveillance services contract examined in that Auditor-General Report. The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit has recommended that the ANAO undertake a performance audit of the Department of Home Affairs’ transition to the new surveillance services contract when the current contract expires (in 2027).

The audit would assess whether the conduct of the procurement employed open and effective competition and achieved value for money, consistent with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs).

This audit would assess to what extent the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has effectively managed its procurement contracts for Inland Rail.

Inland Rail is a key government infrastructure project. It involves building and operating a freight train line from Brisbane to Melbourne. Construction started in 2017 and is expected to finish in 2026.

In August 2021, the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee published a report which highlighted concerns with Inland Rail’s 2015 business case (Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, Commonwealth of Australia, Inland Rail: derailed from the start (2021)). In October 2022, the Australian Government announced an independent review into Inland Rail. This was completed in April 2023 and made 19 recommendations focused around strengthening governance, reviewing risk approaches, assessing the scope and cost of Inland Rail including a revised delivery approach, consideration of further intermodal terminals, and maximising regional opportunities. The government agreed to all 19 recommendations.

As part of its responsibility for managing Australia’s participation in World Expositions, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) manages the design, commissioning and decommissioning of a temporary national pavilion. The department is conducting procurement processes for the design, construction and decommissioning of the pavilion. The pavilion will provide a number of areas: public exhibition and visitor experience areas; function and representational areas; cultural performance areas; commercial retail, food and beverage areas; queuing space and back of house technical areas. The budget for procurements related to the pavilion totals over $68 million, including lead design consultant, project manager and construction contractor.

The audit would examine DFAT’s management of the pavilion project, with a particular focus on the conduct of the procurements and management of the resulting contracts.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the early implementation of the Rewiring the Nation program.

The Australian Government allocated $20 billion to establish the Rewiring the Nation program in the October 2022–23 Federal Budget. The Rewiring the Nation Office in the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is responsible for managing the program, the Australian Energy Market Operator will act as a technical advisor, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation will act as the financing arm.

The program has supported several transmission projects including VNI West (KerangLink) between Victoria and NSW; Sydney Ring – Hunter Transmission Project; Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zones; HumeLink; and the Marinus Link between Tasmania and Victoria.