The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) contracts non-government organisations (NGOs) to deliver community services in New South Wales. In the 2025-26 financial year, DCJ spent approximately $2.2 billion in funding to 705 NGOs who deliver services across 79 programs. These programs include child protection, out-of-home care, community and family support, domestic and family violence, and homelessness services. DCJ directly delivers some services and commissions others from NGOs. It is also responsible for market stewardship, including ensuring NGO-delivered services achieve expected outcomes and provide value for money.

This audit will assess if DCJ is efficiently and effectively commissioning NGOs to deliver community services on its behalf.

The audit will address the audit objective through assessing whether:

1. DCJ plans its service profile to meet service demands
2. DCJ manages and monitors NGO contracts to achieve service outcomes
3. DCJ has oversight of service outputs, outcomes and value for money.

This audit will use follow-the-dollar powers to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of NGO service delivery activity, contract reporting, activity monitoring, oversight and performance against requirements.

If you have experiences or views relevant to the audit scope, you can share them with the Audit Office. This can be done anonymously if you wish. Please note that contributions will close at 6pm, Friday 27 November 2026.

You can give feedback to this audit either through the 'Contribute to this audit' button in the left hand menu (comment icon on top right for mobile) or through this link 

We may use your contribution to identify key themes, risks or issues which may then be further investigated during the audit. In some instances, we may use extracts of what you tell us in our audit report as examples of feedback provided where appropriate. If we use extracts of a contribution, we will not identify the source in the report.

We will not share feedback provided to us with any other organisation or person outside of the Audit Office, and we will not publish feedback (including formal submissions) in our reports or on our website.

In specific circumstances the Audit Office has certain reporting obligations for matters relating to wrongdoing in the public sector that come to our attention. For more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions, please visit Our confidentiality and reporting obligations for contributions page.

However, please note:

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. Please see the contact details listed below for relevant contacts. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews).
• While we will consider all feedback provided, we may not contact you to discuss.
• We are not able to answer questions or provide information we have collected during the course of the audit (see section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act 1983).
• Performance audits focus on assessing whether public money is spent efficiently, effectively, economically and in compliance with the law. The Auditor-General is not permitted to question the merits of government policy objectives (see subsection 27B(6) of the Government Sector Audit Act).
• Please visit the Performance audit guide for audited entities (including non-public sector entities) for more information on how we undertake performance audits.

The Audit Office is required by section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act to keep information obtained during an audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections very seriously.

All information that the Audit Office receives, and working papers that the Audit Office creates during an audit, are classed as excluded information in Schedule 2 of the Government Information (Public Sector) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). An access application under the GIPA Act cannot be made for excluded information.

If you have questions or comments about individual matters, you can:

• contact the NSW Department of Communities and Justice through via their website
• contact the Office of the Children's Guardian by phone on 02 9219 3600, or online
• make a complaint about a NSW government agency to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524.

Legal Aid NSW is responsible for providing legal assistance to disadvantaged people across New South Wales. In criminal law matters, this includes legal information, legal advice, duty lawyer services and grants of legal aid for ongoing representation. Legal Aid NSW delivers services through a combination of in-house lawyers and private practitioners.

Demand for legal assistance is high and increasing, while resources and service capacity are limited. Legal Aid NSW is therefore required to make decisions about how services are prioritised and delivered.

Access also depends on the availability of legal practitioners across different locations and stages of the criminal justice system.

This audit will assess whether Legal Aid NSW provides timely and equitable access to legal assistance and representation in criminal law matters, and whether it prioritises and delivers these services efficiently within available resources.

The audit team will address the audit objective with the following criteria:

You can share feedback with the Audit Office if you have experience or views relevant to this audit. You can do this anonymously if you wish. Submissions close at 5 pm Friday 30 October 2026.

You can contribute to this audit through the "Contribute to this audit" button in the left-hand menu, the comment icon at the top right on mobile, or through this link.

Submissions can cover access to legal information, advice, duty lawyer services, grants of legal aid, representation in criminal law matters, service quality, barriers to help, or how access to criminal legal assistance could be improved.

We welcome feedback from people who sought help, family members and carers, community organisations, advocacy groups and others with experience of the criminal legal assistance system:

• your experience seeking legal information, advice or representation
• any delays, gaps or barriers you experienced
• experiences in regional, rural or remote areas, in custody, or as a member of a disadvantaged or priority group
• how access to, or lack of, legal assistance affected you, your family or your community.

We may use your feedback to identify key themes, risks or issues that could be examined further during the audit. We may also include short extracts from submissions in our audit report, where appropriate. If we do this, we will not identify the person or organisation that provided the feedback.

We will not publish submissions on our website or include information that identifies you without your consent.

In some circumstances, the Audit Office has reporting obligations for matters involving wrongdoing in the public sector that come to our attention.

However, please note:

• We will not examine individual legal matters or investigate every issue or concern raised. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources, such as documents, data and audit interviews. See contact details below for organisations that may be able to assist with individual matters.
• We will consider all feedback, but we may not contact you to discuss your submission.
• We cannot answer questions or provide information collected during the audit.
• Performance audits assess whether public money is used efficiently, effectively, economically and in compliance with the law. They do not question the merits of government policy objectives. Please visit the Performance Audit Guide for audited entities, including non-public sector entities, for more information on how we undertake performance audits.

The Audit Office is required by section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act to keep information obtained during an audit confidential. The Audit Office takes this responsibility seriously.

Information the Audit Office receives, and working papers it creates during an audit, are classed as excluded information under Schedule 2 of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). This means an access application under the GIPA Act cannot be made for that information. 

Click here for more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions received via our website.

Different issues may need to be directed to different organisations. If you have questions or concerns about an individual legal aid matter, legal aid application, legal representation, lawyer or complaint pathway, you may wish to contact:

• Legal Aid NSW online Contact us or by calling 1300 888 529
• the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner to make a complaint online or on 1800 242 958
• the Law Society of NSW online or on 02 9926 0333
• the NSW Bar Association online or on 02 9232 4055
• the NSW Ombudsman to make a complaint online NSW Ombudsman | How to make a complaint or on 1800 451 524.

The Audit Office cannot resolve complaints, review legal advice, reconsider legal aid decisions or intervene in court proceedings.

Overview

Internal controls and governance support operations, compliance with legal obligations and reliable financial statements. This report analyses the internal controls and governance arrangements of 26 of the NSW Government’s largest agencies.

Key findings

Repeat findings continue to increase

Interim audits found weaknesses in internal controls and governance at 15 agencies. More findings now relate to high-risk, high-spend areas such as procurement and grants. Repeat findings increased from 33% to 42% of total findings.

Oversight of grant programs by agencies is weak

Most agencies have limited central oversight and monitoring of grants administration, including how they monitor delivery, reporting and financial management.

Some agencies have deficiencies in frameworks for due diligence checks, acquittal controls, evaluations and reconciliations between program records and grant disbursements. This weakens the level of assurance over financial accountability of public funds and limits agencies’ ability to demonstrate that grants were used for their intended purpose.

Agencies are not effectively engaging and reporting on consultants

Agencies did not always document the justification for hiring consultants, assess their performance or obtain conflict of interest declarations. Thirteen percent of sampled engagements did not include clauses relating to confidentiality to protect government information.

Mandatory annual reporting captures only a small share of payments to firms that provide consulting services, as payments for other professional service types are excluded. Agencies omitted at least $18.3 million in consultancy expenditure from their annual report disclosures since 2023–24.

High risk purchasing card transactions require more scrutiny

Purchasing card transactions included vendors that sell gift cards, entertainment, alcohol and tobacco products.

Personal, non-compliant and split purchases were made on purchasing cards. This points to weaknesses in acquittal controls. One in 5 transactions were not acquitted and approved within 30 days, limiting oversight.

Significant gaps remain in compliance with Cyber Security Policy requirements limiting effective oversight

Less than half of agencies reported compliance with requirements to protect and govern their risk exposure. Some agencies did not assess risks from legacy systems that cannot be patched, increasing their exposure to cyber-attack.

Strategic use and assurance of AI is limited

Agencies have limited visibility over AI use as they did not consistently register all AI use cases or centrally track costs. Governance is not keeping pace with the speed at which agencies are adopting AI.

Recommendations

The report makes 4 recommendations for stronger internal controls and governance for grants administration, purchasing cards, cyber security and AI oversight.

Read the PDF report

The NSW Children’s Court Clinic was established in 2001 under the Children’s Court Act 1987. The Clinic's role is to support the Children’s Court of NSW and higher courts in care and protection matters by providing independent expert clinical assessments of children and young people, and the capacity of parents and others to carry out parental responsibility. Clinic assessments underpin critical decisions impacting First Nations families, including decisions about removal of children from their families, placement in out-of-home care, and restoration pathways. 

This audit will assess the effectiveness of the Clinic in establishing governance, operational, and quality assurance frameworks to enable culturally informed, evidence-based assessments with First Nations children and families as required by legislation and policy.

The audit team will address the audit objective with the following criteria:

If you have experiences or views relevant to the audit scope, you can share them with the Audit Office. This can be done anonymously if you wish. Please note that submissions will close at 5 pm Friday 16 October 2026. 

You can contribute to this audit either through the contribute to this audit button in left hand menu (comment icon on top right for mobile) or through this link

We may use your feedback to identify key themes, risks or issues which may then be further investigated during the audit. In some instances, we may use extracts of contributions in our audit report as examples of feedback provided where appropriate. If we use extracts of a contribution, we will not identify the source in the report.

We will not share feedback provided to us with any other organisation or person outside of the Audit Office, and we will not publish feedback (including submissions) in our reports or on our website. 

In specific circumstances the Audit Office does have certain reporting obligations for matters relating to wrongdoing in the public sector that come to our attention. For more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions, please visit Our confidentiality and reporting obligations for contributions page.

However, please note:

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. Please see the contact details listed below for relevant contacts. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews).
• While we will consider all feedback provided, we may not contact you to discuss.
• We are not able to answer questions or provide information collected during the course of the audit.
• Performance audits focus on assessing whether public money is spent efficiently, effectively, economically and in compliance with the law. The Auditor-General is not permitted to question the merits of government policy objectives. Please visit the Performance audit guide for audited entities (including non-public sector entities) for more information on how we undertake performance audits.

The Audit Office is required by section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act to keep information obtained during an audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections very seriously. 

All information that the Audit Office receives, and working papers that the Audit Office creates during an audit, are classed as excluded information in Schedule 2 of the Government Information (Public Sector) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). An access application under the GIPA Act cannot be made for excluded information.

If you have questions or comments about individual matters, you can:

• Contact the NSW Children’s Court Clinic by phone on (02) 8688 1530, or by email
• Make a complaint directly to the NSW Children’s Court Clinic via the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network online through their webform, or in writing
• Make a complaint about NSW health service providers to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission via their online portal
• Make a complaint about a NSW government agency to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524

Click here for more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions received via our website.

This report will bring together findings and recommendations from our 2025–26 financial audits of local councils. It will comment on local councils’ financial reporting and performance, financial sustainability, internal controls and governance, and areas of interest that are in focus during the conduct of our audits.

This report will bring together findings and recommendations from our 2025–26 financial audits of state agencies. It will comment on the state’s management of employee related costs, contingent workforce management, IT projects, and climate reporting.

This report will analyse whether members of New South Wales Parliament complied with certain requirements outlined in the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal’s Determination.

This report will focus on the 2025–26 consolidated financial statements of the NSW general government and total state sectors. It will comment on the key matters that have been the focus of our audits and highlight significant factors that have contributed to the state’s financial results.

This report will assess procurement and project management of major infrastructure projects in NSW, commenting on common challenges and issues and identifying areas for improvement for all government agencies undertaking such work.

This report will analyse the results of the audit of financial statements of the 10 NSW universities (at year end 31 December 2026). It will comment on financial reporting and performance, internal controls and governance, and areas of interest that are in focus during the conduct of our audits.