Efficiency of Veterans Service Delivery by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs
In 2016, the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee (the Senate Committee) conducted an inquiry into suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel. The Senate Committee’s report on the inquiry, The Constant Battle: Suicide by Veterans, was tabled in Parliament on 15 August 2017.
The Senate Committee’s report found that ‘the need to streamline the administrative practices of DVA was the overwhelming concern of the majority of submissions to the inquiry’, and recommended that the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) undertake a performance audit of the efficiency of veterans’ service delivery by DVA as soon as possible.
ANAO Audit
Commencing in late 2017, the ANAO undertook a performance audit to assess whether DVA was efficiently delivering services to veterans and their dependants.
The report of the ANAO audit was tabled on 27 June 2018, and contained six recommendations to improve DVA’s rehabilitation and compensation claims processes.
Government Response
On 27 June 2018, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and the Secretary for DVA issued a joint statement welcoming the audit report and accepting all six recommendations.
Progress Report — Implementation of Recommendations
Following is an update of the implementation of the recommendations of the ANAO report, as at 31 July 2020: