The Community Health and Hospitals Program (CHHP) and associated measures involved $2 billion in grant and other funding to Primary Health Networks, non-government organisations and state and territory governments.

The audit provides assurance to the Parliament regarding the effectiveness of CHHP administration, including compliance with the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines and alignment with the Federation Funding Agreements Framework.

Findings:

• The Department of Health and Aged Care’s (Health’s) administration of CHHP was ineffective and fell short of ethical requirements.
• The governance and administration of funding arrangements (including national partnership agreements with states and grants to Primary Health Networks and non-government organisations) were not effective.
• Monitoring and evaluation arrangements were partly effective, however they are developing.

There were four recommendations to Health addressing compliance with finance law, grants assessment processes, the quality of advice to government, and GrantConnect reporting.

Health agreed to the four recommendations.