Revealed: How many NDIS providers operate without watchdog scrutiny
Taxpayers fork out $52bn annually for the NDIS scheme but the watchdog monitors just six per cent of care providers, an explosive audit has found.
Exclusive:The NDIS watchdog set up to protect participants on the $52 billion a year scheme has been slammed in a damning audit, which found it has no eyes on more than 90 per cent of providers.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)’s report released on Wednesday found the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, set up in 2018, is only checking on registered providers, which make up just six per cent of the market.
At the moment only a small number of providers looking after the most vulnerable participants are required to be registered.
This masthead recently revealed how easy it is to buy off the shelf “registered” NDIS businesses, which are being sold on Gumtree.
“The commission does not have oversight of all the NDIS providers delivering services in the market as there is no requirement for all providers to be registered,” the report said.
“In the fourth quarter of 2024–25, 94 per cent of active providers were unregistered and received 42 per cent of plan managed NDIS payments.”
The ANAO report said the rate of active unregistered providers on the scheme is growing faster than those who are registered, with active registered providers and active unregistered providers growing by 15 per cent and 26 per cent respectively since 2022-2023.
The report also criticised the watchdog’s intelligence gathering and information sharing arrangements as only “partly effective”.
It also found that it does not have quality assurance processes for detecting and addressing non-compliance activities, and that it does not have processes to ensure information disclosures meet legislative requirements.
“Since commencing operations in 2018, and becoming a national operation in 2021, the commission has not established a framework for assessing, prioritising and managing risks of provider noncompliance,” the report said.
NDIS whistleblower Tanya-Lee Quinn said not only was the watchdog not checking up on unregistered providers, it was doing a very poor job overseeing registered operators.
Ms Quinn, who is about to launch a new app called ProviderCheck, to help call out bad providers, raised the alarm over disgraced company Cocoon SDA Care, which was registered and providing care for disabled people in their own homes, two and a half years before any action was taken.
“The commission has failed miserably to hold providers to account – Cocoon proved that,” Ms Quinn said.
“They can’t see 94 per cent of the market and still can’t manage the six per cent they do regulate.
“With stats as unimpressive as this, can they really still call themselves a watchdog?
“ProviderCheck will shine a light where the watchdog has kept things in the dark.
“People will finally see what’s really going on in the sector, and the commission will be forced to answer for its inaction.”
The ANAO has made 10 recommendations in its report. The watchdog has agreed to all and to one in principle.
Do you know more? Email julie.cross@news.com.au.
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