The royal commissioner investigating robodebt has suggested a "nod and a wink" may have been given to bury a damning report into the unlawful scheme, which eventually netted $750 million in Centrelink debts and was blamed for several suicides.
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Former human services minister Alan Tudge commissioned an independent investigation into the controversial program in 2017.
But the process was cut short after his department told consultants a visual presentation would be sufficient.
PricewaterhouseCoopers ditched the inquiry and never handed over a written report, despite being in the late stages of drafting its findings.
PWC partner Shane West was grilled about the abandoned audit on Friday, with robodebt royal commissioner Catherine Holmes saying his evidence "challenges credulity".
Ms Holmes suggested a "nod and a wink" had been given by the department to bury the report and said the consultancy firm's approach to fulfilling its near-$1 million contract was "very laissez faire".
"What was made clear to you? 'Gosh we're happy with the presentation you made and we don't need any more?'" Ms Holmes asked.
"You've almost got it finalised and then it's clear a presentation you've given a couple of weeks earlier will fit the bill?"
One draft report included former senior Human Services official Jason McNamara lashing the scheme as "only caring about the money", referring to $8 billion in budget savings.
"The government doesn't care about what they do with compliance to achieve it ... other than the department doing something politically silly, they don't care," the report quoted Mr McNamara as saying.
Presented with an interim summary of the audit, Mr West agreed PwC found a lot of flaws in the system, saying there was clear evidence the promised savings were not going to be achieved.
Mr West also said PWC did not rely on information from the department, which Ms Holmes characterised as a "mistrust in the work they'd done".
"There was a view what the department had documented ... might not have been 100 per cent accurate," Mr West said.
The controversial Centrelink debt recovery scheme was established in 2015 and continued until 2019, despite attracting widespread criticism by early 2017.
The scheme used annual tax office data to calculate fortnightly earnings and automatically issue welfare debt notices.
The program recovered $750 million from 381,000 people and led to several people taking their own lives while being pursued for false debts.
The royal commission will hold a fourth block of public hearings staring February 20.
Australian Associated Press
