Two people have been banned from the embattled National Disability Insurance Scheme for life after allegedly colluding to wrongfully register almost 250 providers.
Former NDIS consultant Zeinab Ghamraoui and NDIS auditor Sanyog Desai, both from western Sydney, were given lifetime bans in late June as a result of an NDIS Commission investigation.
The registrations of 40 NDIS providers linked to Desai and Ghamraoui have been revoked, and another 195 had their registration applications refused following the investigation, which was conducted using new powers granted in April allowing action to be taken against consultants and auditors, Newswire reported.
The $56 billion NDIS, which costs taxpayers more than Medicare and the aged care system, has been attempting to crack down on rampant fraud, which is concentrated in Labor-voting western Sydney electorates with large immigrant and Muslim populations.
NDIS Quality and Safeguards commissioner Louise Glanville said trust in the registration and audit process was vital to maintaining public confidence in the controversial scheme.
“This outcome reflects the NDIS Commission’s commitment to identifying conduct that threatens the safety, quality and integrity of the scheme and to removing bad actors,” she said.
“The commission will use all available regulatory tools to address serious noncompliance and hold individuals accountable for misconduct, regardless of the role they perform within the NDIS ecosystem.”
NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said the lifetime bans should serve as a warning that anyone “looking to make a quick buck” from the scheme would be caught and punished.
“Anyone that thinks they can get away with doing the wrong thing – you can’t,” she said.
On Sunday Ms McAllister revealed that of 1,400 NDIS plan managers, about 900 of the 1,000 smallest had been flagged for fraud or integrity issues,.
A week earlier she said in a speech that fraud was costing the scheme $4billion, but investigators have previously estimated fraud losses at over $8 billion, and said the true amount being stolen is likely to be too high to calculate.
Header image credit: NDIS.
