[David Grima]

Morning all,
Had a nice conversation with Department of Human Services (won’t mention the name though – let’s call him Fred).
We (Botany) recently failed an audit because of two reasons – 1) application forms have been destroyed that are older than seven (7) years old and 2) the filing system here is non-existant.
Fred said he would let this one go as I have put in processes to remedy the situation, however, Fred also advised that if we fail the next audit (which is likely) we would be made to send letters to our pensioners advising them that they need to come in and sign a new application form.
As the DHS are already making us send letters to our pensioners advising them the consent they had with the old Council is being transferred to the new Council, I asked Fred that perhaps we could use the letter as the consent.
Fred advised said no as when an audit is undertaken a signed concession form must be produced.
As I told Fred that it was bloody ridiculous (amongst other things), Fred advised that he would just cancel our access so that we could not verify.
I advised Fred that in the event that this occurred I would be making representations to the Minister for Human Services through our Local Member and that a letter would be included in the rate notice directing any enquiries to him including his direct number in order to do so.
Fred was not impressed and we left it at that.
I am looking forward to my next audit.
My question is have you been made to have all pensioners sign a new concession form, and if you did, how many pensioners do you have and how were they received by your pensioners.
I am interested to know for future reference.
David
p.s. I am (now) aware of the record keeping requirements of our contract

[Linda Fury]

Hi David

We have had 2 audits in the last 2 years (one being on Tuesday) and we have “failed” both of them.

The first audit we had they identified that we didn’t have consent forms for half of the 20 accounts they wanted to see the forms for.

From this first audit we then pulled all of the old forms that were archived and bought them back to Council where the staff them scanned them into Trim if they were still eligible for a rebate.

From this process and our own internal audit processes we are now part way through checking our 15,000 plus pensioners to see if Council holds a pension concession application form in Trim and if not we are writing to them, together with a pension application form, and asking them to sign it and return it to Council.

We have had about 25 calls (so far) in relation to this, some of them not so nice, but we are still in the process of checking our pensioners.

From the audit this week we have failed again because we haven’t “retained and securely stored Customer Consent records for a minimum of 2 years” – these people were deceased – but we still have to keep the forms for 2 more years.

We too have been made aware that if department is not satisfied that we have taken the required actions by 9 March 2017, the department will consider further options in relation to our use of CCeS including potentially suspending access or withdrawing our approval to use CCeS.

[Simone Fisher]

Hi David, Fred also failed us on our first audit due to application forms completed pre our electronic records system not being located. We have around 2,500 pensioners & I took one staff member away from normal duties for one-two weeks with a list of pensioners to go through trim & mark off any that we had a completed form for. For the rest (around 400) we sent letters requesting that new applications be completed. We received allot of queries (from the ratepayer, their family members, accountants, legal representatives) & most weren’t happy & some phoned more than several times.
I think in the end the one to two weeks spent going through the applications that we did have to reduce the number of letters we needed to send was well worth it.
We also had around 60 that didn’t reply to the first letter. For these we removed the rebate codes & sent a letter & another application form with their July Notice advising that a rebate could not be granted for the new year until they completed the application. We received almost all of these back soon after.
Simone

[Ken Bakon]

Hi “Son of Fred”,
I had an audit in May 2015 – passed with flying colours.
I have once again been sent info from “Fred” advising of a new audit, with all info to be ready for a phone call next Friday.
Due to our 1997 fire, I am unable to find two consents.
Will be interesting to see what Fred says

Ken

[Ken Bakon]

Hi All,
Well here we go again……..another audit (the second this year) will happen. As they say
“The Department of Human Services is advising of its intention to conduct a review with City Of Canterbury Bankstown, in accordance with clause 8 of the Centrelink Confirmation eServices (CCeS) Terms, in the coming months. The department will contact City Of Canterbury Bankstown closer to the review with more specific details. Please note that other contracts you may hold with the department may be reviewed at the same time.”

Our previous audit in February THIS YEAR ended with an email from “Frederica” which thanked us for our co-operation and passed us with no further action.

Musn’t have much to do in at Centrelink if they see the need to audit a Council twice in one year – particularly if that Council passed its previous audit.

Be interested if anyone else is in our situation

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