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You must comply with your provider legislative obligations. If you don’t meet them, you may be liable to civil penalties or criminal prosecution [part 61.1].
Under section 24A of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVR Act), VSL providers must comply with the VET Student Loans Act 2016 as a condition of registration as an RTO. Failure to comply with the Act could be grounds for ASQA to consider regulatory action under its legislation.
Note: In dealing with matters involving VSL providers, we may work with, exchange information with or engage in joint compliance activities with the ASQA, the ACCC, the VET Student Loans Ombudsman, the ATO and other stakeholders.
Assistance with meeting legislative requirements
To help you to meet all requirements, you can use the Checklist for administrative requirements at Appendix P.
You can request help by completing the online enquiry form at Provider Enquiries.
60.1 - Provider audits
The department can audit you at any time on your compliance with the statutory requirements and/or on whether your students are genuine students [part 42]. You may face serious consequences (such as a civil penalty) if you fail to cooperate with an audit.
Keeping accurate and detailed records will help you meet your obligations and comply with audits.
Department may request information
We may require you to provide information or documents relating to:
- your provision of vocational education and training
- your compliance with the Act (including the Rules).
We will give you notice in writing if we want you to provide this information.
If we request information, you must provide it in the form specified in the notice (for example, in the form of a Statutory Declaration) and in line with any other requirements specified in the notice.
Contravening this requirement may give rise to a civil penalty and is a strict liability offence (both of 60 penalty units).
60.2 - Commonwealth regulatory powers
The VET Student Loans Act 2016 incorporates the following regulatory powers:
- monitoring powers to determine whether the Act has been complied with, including powers of entry and inspection
- investigation powers to determine whether a provision has been contravened, including powers of entry, search and seizure
- enforcement of civil penalty provisions under Part 4 of the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014, including by obtaining an order for a person to pay a pecuniary penalty
- issuing infringement notices for contravention of an offence provision or a civil penalty provision
- accepting and enforcing undertakings relating to compliance with provisions
- using injunctions to enforce provisions
- appointment of investigators.
Taking action under the above provisions does not limit the department from taking action under any other provision of the Act.
Legislation: Act s 45–46, s 53, s 88–90