Supporting industry development

Tabled Report 4: 2025–26

Tabled date

2025-10-28

Report year

2025-26

Economic development

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: the department

   strengthens its risk assessments for grant programs by including the risk of fraud and the risk of applicants receiving funding from different government sources for the same projects (Chapter 4)

2. QAO's text Addressed to: the department

   improves the consistency and transparency of grant assessments by ensuring assessment frameworks include clear guidance for assessors, particularly for qualitative criteria such as a project’s potential to drive economic change (Chapter 4)

3. QAO's text Addressed to: the department

   strengthens the consistency of grant assessment decision-making by applying the same assessment procedures to all projects participating in the competitive process (Chapter 4).

4. QAO's text Addressed to: all entities

   ensure their grant processes match the government’s desired outcomes, particularly in terms of which applicants can successfully apply (Chapter 5)

5. QAO's text Addressed to: all entities

   improve public transparency by reviewing commercial-in-confidence classifications and identifying information that can be published after a project is delivered (Chapter 5).

6. QAO's text Addressed to: the department

   strengthens how it monitors whether grant recipients are meeting their obligations, with checks that match the risk level of each project. This includes conducting more frequent or detailed checks for high-risk projects and simpler checks for low-risk ones (Chapter 6)

7. QAO's text Addressed to: the department

   uses an appropriate grants management system to support consistent delivery of grant programs, improve data capture, strengthen compliance monitoring, and enhance overall program transparency (Chapter 6)

8. QAO's text Addressed to: the department

   strengthens how it evaluates programs and measures impact by:

   • setting and publishing clear, measurable success indicators and targets when designing grant programs
   • developing a monitoring and evaluation framework at the start of each program, which includes how progress will be measured and when evaluations will occur
   • conducting or commissioning economic analysis to better measure the program’s economic outcomes (Chapter 6).

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO