New South Wales government agencies have consistently failed to negotiate the best price for their telecommunication contracts and are not getting value for money because of inadequate contract and expense management processes, according to this audit.

Audit overview

The audit examined whether the State telecommunications procurement framework assists agencies to achieve value for money. We also assessed whether six review agencies demonstrated that they achieved value for money in their telecommunications arrangements.

We found that, regardless of the State procurement model, the main determinant of whether agencies achieved value for money is how they managed their procurement processes, contracts and expenses.

Only one agency in our review did this well and could demonstrate that it was getting value for money in its telecommunications arrangements.

Our conclusion is that most of the agencies we reviewed do not have the level of expertise in procurement, contract management and expense management that is needed in the fastchanging telecommunications area to achieve value for money.