DTA faces extended scrutiny after damaging audit

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) faces an extended period of scrutiny after a damaging audit last year found it “ineffective” at IT procurement, one of its core functions.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)-run audit led to a series of actions by DTA to try to address the issues. 

But a review of the initial audit and fallout by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit has concluded some independent “verification” that DTA has turned a corner is desirable.

For the agency that sets the direction of digital government strategy, architecture and investments, that means answering to the committee before the end of 2023.

The committee wants to be convinced the DTA's procurement governance and oversight is back on track, that its executives are following Commonwealth Procurement Rules, and that its tender evaluation, contract management and record-keeping are to standard.

But scrutiny of the DTA may not end there: the committee is of the belief that ANAO should “consider conducting a follow up audit within three years”.

“An ongoing concern arising from this inquiry is that even where the DTA had established proper policies and procedures in relation to its procurements, they were ignored by senior management and procuring officials,” the committee wrote in a report this week.

“This does not give rise to confidence that the DTA is necessarily capable of implementing the reforms it has planned in response to the audit. 

“At the very least it indicates that some verification of its efforts is warranted. 

“The committee therefore considers that there is merit in a follow up audit of the DTA’s ICT-related procurements so that the parliament can be satisfied that the problems identified by the ANAO have been addressed, and that new problems have not arisen in the interim.”