The Growing Regions Program is one of the largest competitive grant programs administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the design and planning of the program.

Previous ANAO audits found deficiencies in the Department's implementation of regional grants programs, including program design, providing information to the delegate, and transparency of decision-making. This audit provides assurance to the Parliament on the design of the Growing Regions Program and whether the Department has implemented lessons learned from previous grants programs.

Key findings

• The design of the Growing Regions Program was largely effective.
• The Department developed program objectives and outcomes that align with the overall government policy objective after capturing and documenting lessons learned from previous grants programs. The Department also consulted with stakeholders during the planning of the Growing Regions Program and met the mandatory requirements against the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines 2017 (CGRGs) for the grant opportunity guidelines.
• The Department has not met best practice principles of the CGRGs in terms of having clear assessment criteria, appropriate weighting for criteria and providing grant opportunity guidelines to stakeholders for consultation as planned.