As predicted, new figures show that the National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) expenditure on consultants, labour hire firms and outsourced service delivery in 2017-18 totalled about $600 million. From The Australian:
The $600m torrent of cash in 2017-18 is in addition to the $4.9 billion spent on direct support for disabled people and includes almost $250m paid to the Department of Human Services for “shared” staff and IT networks that have caused at least three major system meltdowns in the past two years. More than $55m was spent by the National Disability Insurance Agency on labour hire, temporary staff and recruitment services in just one year, despite warnings from the Australian Government Solicitor that in doing so, it may be in breach of workplace laws.
These procurement figures do not include the running costs of the agency, which has about 1700 full-time and permanent staff…
The co-chief executive of People with Disability Australia Therese Sands told The Australian the organisation was “very concerned to see the continued spending on consultants and temporary staff by the NDIA”.
“People with disability have the right to an equal and good life, with the resources to make that happen,” she said. “Instead, millions of dollars are being spent on consultants. This has to stop now.
The enormous pot of money on offer under the NDIS was always going to spawn a whole range of middle-men and providers seeking to cash in, leading to significant waste, or worse fraud. We’ve seen this before with the rorting of the private Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, rorting of childcare subsidies, and rorting of the Pink Batts Scheme.
History never repeats, but it sure does rhyme.
