Auditor-general called in to scrutinise SA homelessness services tender process after error is identified

There are calls for an investigation after a maths error emerged in tender documents over the number of homeless crisis beds needed in the CBD and the south.

Concerns have been raised over a homelessness tender process after an error in documents over the number of crisis beds to be funded emerged on day one of the new contract.

The state opposition has referred the multimillion-dollar tender for homelessness services in the CBD and southern Adelaide for investigation to SA Auditor-General Andrew Richardson.

Tender documents show 116 existing crisis beds must be maintained by the successful Toward Home Alliance, made up of several providers including Lutheran Care and the Salvation Army.

But a media release and radio interviews revealed on Thursday – the day Toward Home services started – that 96 beds would be funded. And that the South Australian Housing Authority had incorrectly included beds managed by the Salvation Army into the total of 116 crisis beds.

Rough sleepers camped outside shopfronts on Pulteney St, Adelaide.

It is understood the corrected figure was communicated to the consortia in the Adelaide South region in January via the tenders clarification register. The successful alliance of providers was announced in April.

Opposition human services spokesman Nat Cook said the tender process had been “haphazard, last minute and lacking cohesion” and raised concerns over whether applicants were submitting proposals with all the right information.

“How can this process have cleared a probity assessment with these questions outstanding?” she said.

(R-L) State opposition human services spokeswoman Nat Cook with former Catherine House client Losa Bloomfield and SA Senator Penny Wong lobbying against a $1.2 million funding cut to the city's’s only women’s shelter. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Ms Cook said last-minute negotiations by the Toward Home Alliance with de-funded service providers had failed to meet tender requirements for an “effective, smooth and efficient handover of the services types”.

St Vincent de Paul Society, one of the unsuccessful tender applicants defunded $1.2 million from July 1, was told on Monday night that 40 of its 47 crisis beds in the CBD would be contracted by the Toward Home Alliance.

St Vincent de Paul Society SA CEO Louise Miller Frost at the Vinnes Men's Crisis Centre in Whitmore Square. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink said the Opposition had its facts wrong.

“Crisis bed numbers remain the same and people will get the support they need when they need it,” said Ms Lensink. “All tenderers had access to the same information.”

The government has repeatedly defended the new funding arrangements, saying no crisis beds would be lost and that total homelessness funding had increased to $72.4m in 2021-22 from $65.5m in 2017-18.

To access homelessness services in SA call Homeless Connect SA on 1800 003 308.