Submission to the Follow the Dollar Reform in NSW Consultation Paper
NCOSS has made a brief submission to the NSW Treasury consultation paper on Follow the Dollar Reform in NSW, which seeks to empower the NSW Auditor-General to carry out performance audits of non-public sector entities (NPSEs) that provide goods or services on behalf of the government.
Given the limited timeframe of this consultation, NCOSS has provided broad, high-level comments on the proposed reforms, highlighting that our sector is already subject to frequent, rigorous, onerous and often duplicative contractual, regulatory and reporting requirements from multiple funding bodies.
NCOSS also suggests that if additional accountability requirements through FTD reform are under consideration, so too should other common-sense initiatives that would streamline existing, duplicative arrangements, reduce the administrative burden and ensure a sustainable social services sector - such as fairer and longer-term contracts, adequate indexation and standardised contract management approaches.