Auditor-General slams rooming house inspections

Date
    April 17, 2013


It takes one minute or less for inspectors from the state's consumer watchdog to investigate a rooming house.    

The revelation came in a damning Auditor-General's report, which found that the state's Consumer Protection staff were poorly trained and unaware of the procedures and guidelines.

Consumer Affairs investigates, educates and enforces consumer law and fair trading including banning dangerous goods and ensuring that retailers are behaving within the rules.

It is also in charge of regulating rooming houses and the audit found that of 24 inspections sampled for the audit:


■ No officer gained entry to the property being inspected.

■ Seven inspections were registered as taking one minute or less to complete.

■ Residents were spoken to in only five inspections.

The Auditor-General found that few Consumers Affairs staff were aware of the department's own guidelines.

Of 16 badged compliance and enforcement officers spoken to during the audit – out of a total of 45 – none were aware of more than two of the authority's four compliance and enforcement guides and procedures.

"It [the framework] is undermined by a lack of awareness among over a third of compliance and enforcement officers, a performance framework that cannot provide CAV with the information it needs to reliably assess its performance, and weaknesses in how it manages its information," the report said.

It also found that there was no advanced training covering key activities such as taking evidence, seizure of goods and prosecution, which raised questions about the efficiency and transparency of Consumer Affairs' work.

And because Consumer Affairs had no targets or measures to track the progress of cases through to enforcement action it is not in a position "to assure itself, Parliament or the community that cases are being dealt with in a timely and efficient manner."

Shadow Minister for Consumer Protection Lily D'Ambrosio labelled rooming house checks "pretend inspections" and said Consumer Affairs work had gone backwards under the Coalition government.    

"Not only has activity gone backwards, but CAV have been fudging the figures to make their work appear better than it is," Ms D'Ambrosio said.

The Auditor-General recommended that Consumer Affairs update policy and procedures, test and train staff and improve data collection and performance targets.

Comment has been sought from Consumer Affairs and the government.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/auditorgeneral-slams-rooming-house-inspections-20130417-2hzxx.html#ixzz2Qi0IGky5