The Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLER) program was created after the 2019–20 bushfires, and commits $541.8 million to bushfire affected areas in New South Wales. It is co-funded by the Commonwealth and NSW governments.

This audit assessed how effectively the Department of Regional NSW (the department) and Resilience NSW administered rounds one and two of the BLER program.

Key findings:

• The Department of Regional NSW did not effectively administer the Fast-Tracked stream of the BLER.
• The administration process lacked integrity, given it did not have sufficiently detailed guidelines and the assessment process for projects lacked transparency and consistency.
• The department's administration of the SDG stream had a detailed and transparent assessment process. However, conflicts of interest were not effectively managed.