The Minns Labor Government thanks the NSW Ombudsman for his report issued today on the delivery of COVID era grant programs.
It is one of a number of reports relating to the delivery of grants by the Liberal-National Government and provides recommendations for future programs. The report also looks at the related audit programs for the Covid-19 Business Grant, JobSaver Payment and Micro-business Grant, which were delivered in 2021 during a period of profound economic, social and public health uncertainty.
The Government is considering the Ombudsman's findings and recommendations carefully. Significant improvements have already been made to the way grants for multiple community and disaster response events are delivered and audited.
The pandemic was a difficult period for families, households and businesses across NSW. Supporting businesses through the COVID-19 crisis was important - but in shaping future grants programs we have already applied learnings from these programs to make sure there are clearer guidelines, hardship considerations during audits and a robust framework to deter fraud.
In the previous Government's haste to get the Micro-Business Grants out in particular, a range of factors resulted in the potential for error and abuse, including making payments to applicants who self-declared they were eligible.
The department, including Service NSW and Revenue NSW, will continue to work alongside NSW Treasury and central agencies to strengthen whole-of-government approaches to grants administration and compliance to ensure agencies safeguard the integrity of grants programs in a fair and proportionate way.
