With the NDIA silent over provider pay freeze, who is running the NDIS?
Questions are being asked about who’s running the $48.5b a year NDIS with the CEO on sick leave and the chairman of the board – Paralympic hero Kurt Fearnley – refusing to comment.
EXCLUSIVE
Questions are being asked about who is leading the $48.5 billion a year National Disability Insurance Scheme, with the chief executive on sick leave and the chairman of the board – Paralympic hero Kurt Fearnley – refusing to comment on a damning audit.
NDIS advocates said there’s been deafening silence from the scheme’s leadership at a time of great “turbulence”, following the board’s decision to freeze – or in some cases cut – NDIS providers’ pay for the sixth year in a row.
The organisation that runs the disability scheme, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), confirmed that CEO Rebecca Falkingham is on sick leave after people started commenting that she was missing in action.
“If Rebecca is on leave, we have to ask who is actually in charge of the NDIA right now?” David Dinca, a physiotherapist leading a campaign against the price freeze, said.
He said the decision not to increase the fee cap for providers was made without prior consultation or engagement with the sector and announced just two weeks’ notice before it came into force.
Critics said it would lead to businesses closing and participants ending up in hospital beds. More than 55,000 people have signed a petition against the price freeze.
Mr Dinca said peak bodies had not been able to speak to the CEO and, in some cases, even the deputy CEOs in the run-up to the annual price guide announcement, which is normally the practice.
“If you email Rebecca, there is no out-of-office reply,” he said. “Some emails are answered by subordinates, most are with no reply at all.
“No clear acting CEO has been named to replace her. That is the NDIA Board’s responsibility.
“All this while the sector sits in turmoil. Price changes, providers pulling out, people with disability and families caught in the fallout.”
It comes in the wake of a report from the Australian National Audit Office which found the NDIA’s processes were only “partly effective” at checking whether NDIS claims were genuine or not, despite millions poured into fraud detection.
It also found the board to be non-compliant with the Fraud and Corruption Rule as it had not endorsed an updated Fraud and Corruption Control Plan.
Mr Fearnley, who is paid $144,700 a year, and Ms Falkingham, who is on more than $800,000 a year, have not responded to requests for comment about the audit and who is accountable.
An NDIA spokesman responded and said: “Acting CEO arrangements in line with standard Commonwealth Public Service processes are in place to ensure the continued day-to-day operation of the NDIS.
“Senior leaders, including the acting CEO, are continually engaging with a broad range of stakeholders regarding NDIS matters.”
The spokesman did not name who the acting CEO was.
New NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister, who is still getting to grips with her new portfolio, is also yet to speak about her plans for the NDIS.
She takes over from Amanda Rishworth, who held the position for just four months and is now Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.
Bill Shorten was in the role before that.
Shadow Assistant Minister for the NDIS, Phil Thompson said there was “a clear and concerning culture of silence in the NDIS portfolio at the moment, which is completely at odds with what is in the best interest of Australians living with a disability”.
“The government must step up and provide some much-needed certainty to Australians living with a disability who are relying on these services,” Mr Thompson said.
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Originally published as With the NDIA silent over provider pay freeze, who is running the NDIS?
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