The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) was provided funding in the 2016–17 Budget to commence planning to significantly improve its provision of services. Since 2017–18, funding allocated to DVA and Services Australia totalling $653.7 million has enabled the implementation of changes to policies, services and ICT infrastructure, as part of a comprehensive set of reforms, termed the Veteran Centric Reform program (VCR).

The provision of services to veterans and their families is a subject of interest to the Parliament and the public. The VCR program is the most comprehensive set of reforms undertaken by the department in decades. Audit assurance about VCR program implementation provides transparency about whether sufficient progress is being made against reform objectives.

The objective of the audit was to examine the effectiveness of DVA’s planning and management of the VCR program. To form a conclusion against this objective, the following high-level criteria were adopted:

• Was DVA planning for veteran-centric reforms effective?
• Did DVA establish fit for purpose arrangements for implementing the VCR program?
• Does DVA appropriately monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of reform measures?