Long-term, subsidised rental housing is provided to assist people who have extreme difficulty in accessing housing in the private housing market. The collective term for this type of housing is ‘social housing’ which in New South Wales includes: 

• ‘public housing’ managed by Homes NSW (a division of the Department of Communities and Justice) 
• ‘community housing’ managed by non-government organisations (social housing providers) 
• housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples managed by the Aboriginal Housing Office or Aboriginal social housing providers.

In New South Wales, applications for housing assistance are managed through Housing Pathways. This is a partnership between Homes NSW, including the Aboriginal Housing Office, and participating community housing providers. Housing Pathways provides a single application process, common eligibility criteria, a standard assessment process and a single waiting list known as the NSW Housing Register. 

This audit will assess whether social housing is effectively and efficiently prioritised to meet the needs of vulnerable households, and whether social housing tenants are effectively supported to establish and sustain their tenancies. 

The audit will assess all types of social housing including public housing, community housing and housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Audit Office is seeking experiences or views on: 

• the process of applying for social housing (including evidence requirements) 
• the process of being offered and accepting a social housing property
• support programs and services offered to new social housing tenants. 

If you have experiences or views on these areas, you can share them with the Audit Office. This can be done anonymously if you wish. We will consider all feedback provided as we conduct this audit. 

Please note that the audit mailbox will close at 5pm on Friday 28 February 2025. 

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

We may use your feedback to identify key themes, risks or issues which we may investigate further 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.

However, please note: 

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews). Please contact the Department of Communities and Justice, individual community housing providers, the Registrar of Community Housing, Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services, the NSW Ombudsman, or the Independent Commission Against Corruption regarding individual matters (details below). 
• We will not share your feedback with any party, including the Department of Communities and Justice or any community housing providers, nor do we publish feedback on our website. 
• 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 1983 to keep information gathered during the course of a performance audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections seriously. 

Exceptions include the Auditor-General’s Report to Parliament – a public document – and where the Audit Office is permitted or required to disclose information under other legislation. 

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. 

For more information on our confidentiality obligations, please visit Our confidentiality and reporting obligations for contributions page.

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

• contact the Department of Communities and Justice online or by calling 1800 422 322 
• contact a community housing provider through their individual website or contact details 
• contact the Registrar for Community Housing to make a complaint against a community housing provider online or by calling 1800 330 940 
• contact Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services for tenancy and legal advice. Their website provides online forms and phone numbers for advice. 
• make a complaint to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524 
• make a complaint about corruption to the Independent Commission Against Corruption online or by calling 02 8281 5999.

About this report

Internal controls are key to the accuracy and reliability of agencies’ financial reporting processes. This report analyses the internal controls and governance of 26 of the NSW public sector’s largest agencies for the 2023–24 financial year.

Findings

There are gaps in key business processes, which expose agencies to risks. These gaps are identified in 121 findings across the 26 agencies—including 4 high risk, 73 moderate risk and 44 low risk findings. All four high-risk issues related to IT controls and 19% of control deficiencies were repeat issues. Thirty-five per cent of agencies had deficiencies in control over privileged access.

Shared IT services

Six agencies provide IT shared services to 120 other customer agencies. All six had control deficiencies—three of these were high risk. Four agencies provide no independent assurance to their customers about the effectiveness of their own IT controls.

Cyber security

Eighteen agencies assessed cyber risk as being above their risk appetite. Fourteen of these agencies had not set a timeframe to resolve these risks and two agencies have not funded plans to improve cyber security.

Fraud and corruption control

Agencies need to improve fraud and corruption control. Instances of non-compliance with TC18-02 NSW Fraud and Corruption Policy were identified, including gaps such as a lack of comprehensive employment screening policies and not reporting matters to the audit and risk committee.

Gifts and benefits

Management of gifts and benefits requires better governance and transparency. All agencies had policy and guidance but all had gaps in management and implementation—such as not publishing registers nor providing ongoing training.

Information Technology

Nine agencies did not effectively restrict or monitor user access to privileged accounts.

Recommendations

The report makes recommendations to agencies to implement proper controls and improve processes in relation to:

• organisational processes
• information technology
• cyber security
• fraud and corruption, and
• gifts and benefits.

Read the PDF report

About this report

Australian and state legislation protects the right of students with disability to a quality education, free from discrimination. These require that students with disability be supported to access and participate in education on the same basis as their peers without disability.

This audit assessed whether the NSW Department of Education is effectively supporting students with disability in NSW public schools.

Findings

The Department has effectively designed approaches and developed reforms under its 2019 Disability Strategy and related measures.

But it still hasn’t resolved longstanding issues with funding, access to targeted supports, monitoring school practice and tracking outcomes for students with disability.

This is despite the Department being made aware of these performance gaps for almost two decades across multiple audits, parliamentary inquiries and the recent national Disability Royal Commission.

Recommendations

The report makes five recommendations to address these gaps, including that the Department should:

• annually monitor the experiences and outcomes of students with disability to be able to identify and address emerging issues, and promote good practice
• reform funding to be better aligned to student needs
• enhance guidance and support to schools and families on making reasonable adjustments for students with disability.

Read the PDF report

Parliamentary reference - Report number #400- released 26 September 2024.

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

• contact the NSW Department of Education through the website
• make a complaint to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524.
   

Under the Education Act 1990 the Department of Education is legally required to ensure that every child receives an education of the highest quality. This includes in alternative education settings such as distance education and schools for specific purposes catering for students with emotional or behavioural disturbances, students in youth detention and students in hospital for long periods of time. The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) oversees the program for home schooling registration under delegation from the Minister. 

This audit will assess how well the Department and NESA fulfil their responsibilities to support students to receive a quality education delivered through flexible ways and/ or in alternative settings.

If you have experiences or views on flexible education delivery/alternative education settings, you can share them with the Audit Office. This can be done anonymously if you wish. We will consider all feedback provided as we audit the NSW Department of Education and NESA.  

Please note that the audit mailbox will close COB Friday 28 February 2025. 

You can provide feedback on this audit either through the ‘contribute to this audit’ button in the left hand menu (or the 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. 

However, please note: 

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews). Please contact the Department of Education, NESA or the NSW Ombudsman regarding individual matters (details below). 
• We will not share your feedback with any party, including the Department of Education or NESA, nor do we publish feedback on our website. 
• 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 1983 to keep information gathered during the course of a performance audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections seriously. 

Exceptions include the Auditor-General’s Report to Parliament – a public document – and where the Audit Office is permitted or required to disclose information under other legislation.

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. 

For more information on our confidentiality obligations, please visit Our confidentiality and reporting obligations for contributions page.

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

• contact the NSW Department of Education through the website 
• contact the NSW Education Standards Authority through the website 
• make a complaint to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524.

In 2014, the State entered into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with a private operator to deliver the Northern Beaches Hospital. The Northern Beaches Hospital opened in late 2018 and provides free public patient services as well as a range of services for private patients. 

This audit will examine whether the Northern Beaches Hospital PPP is efficiently and effectively delivering public hospital services.  

In doing so, the audit will answer the following questions: 

1. Do NSW Health agencies ensure the effective and efficient delivery of public funded hospital services from the Northern Beaches Hospital? 
   1. Do NSW Health agencies effectively identify and monitor risks to the success of the Northern Beaches Hospital?
   2. Do NSW Health agencies collect the information required to ensure effective delivery of public hospital services at the Northern Beaches Hospital?
   3. Do NSW Health agencies effectively manage the Northern Beaches Hospital contract to ensure effective delivery of public hospital services at the Northern Beaches Hospital? 
   4. Is the Northern Sydney Local Health District using the Northern Beaches Hospital Public Private Partnership to achieve efficient service delivery? 
2. Is the operator of the Northern Beaches Hospital effectively delivering public hospital services in selected clinical areas? 
   1. Does the Northern Beaches Hospital meet contract requirements for performance, planning and reporting? 
   2. Does the Northern Beaches Hospital provide quality care consistent with equivalent public health facilities in NSW?

Included within the scope: 

• The parties to the Northern Beaches Hospital contract deed: Northern Sydney Local Health District, the Ministry of Health (as the delegate for the Health Administration Corporation) and the private sector operator, NBH Operator Co (a subsidiary of Healthscope Ltd.). 
• Comparison against benchmarks for peer or near-peer NSW Health hospitals. 
• The audit will focus on two areas of clinical activity: Emergency Department activity and General Surgery. 
• The main period of focus for this audit is from July 2022 to June 2024.

Excluded from the scope: 

• The decision to deliver the Northern Beaches Hospital via a Public Private Partnership. 
• The design and construction phases of the Northern Beaches Hospital Public Private Partnership. 
• Quality as it relates to an assessment of the specific effectiveness of clinical activities or scopes of practice. However, the audit may comment on whether the agencies have themselves adequately considered and assessed clinical evidence as part of performance monitoring and oversight of clinical services. 
• Merits of government policy objectives.

You can share information relating to this scope with the audit team. Submissions can be made anonymously. Please note that submissions will close on COB Friday 15 November 2024. 

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

However, please note: 

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. In general, the audit team will look for confirmatory evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews). 
• We will not share submissions with any party, including NSW Health or the private operator of the Northern Beaches Hospital, nor do we publish submissions on our website.  
• While we will consider all submissions, we may not contact you to discuss your submission. 
• 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. Click here 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: 

• make a complaint about the provision of healthcare to the Health Care Complaints Commission online or by calling 1800 043 159 
• make a complaint about a NSW government agency to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524 
• make a complaint about corruption to the Independent Commission Against Corruption online or by calling 02 8281 5999. 

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

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) enters into contracts with private companies to operate bus services. In Metropolitan Sydney these contracts are worth an estimated $4.8 billion.

This performance audit will assess the effectiveness of Transport for NSW’s design and management of metropolitan Sydney bus service contracts. It will examine whether TfNSW is effectively managing the performance of contracts held by private bus companies to ensure contractual commitments are being met, with a focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relating to customer experience, and whether TfNSW has designed an effective governance regime to underpin the performance management of bus contracts in metropolitan Sydney, and demonstrating that contracts are being managed to deliver value for money. 

This report will focus on the 2023–24 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.

New South Wales has over 180,000 km of roads across its network. Local councils manage over 85% of these roads.

This audit will consider how effectively three councils are managing their road assets. The audit will examine whether the selected councils have a strategic framework in place for road assets, have effective data and systems for managing road assets and whether they manage their road assets in line with planned service levels and quality outcomes.  

The councils selected for this audit are Gwydir Shire Council, Wollondilly Shire Council and Clarence Valley Council.

The audit will also consider relevant guidance and support provided to councils by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.

This report will analyse the results of the 2023–24 financial statement audits of NSW Government agencies. It will comment on financial reporting and performance, key accounting issues and areas of interest that are in focus during the conduct of our audits.

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