At first glance, the healthcare company Allied Care Group looks like just another small business trying to make its way in a crowded market.

Its headquarters is listed as an office suite above a bank branch in sleepy Kingscliff, just south of Tweed Heads.

The company seems an unlikely candidate for a massive federal government contract worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years.

Yet in February this year, Allied Care Group was one of eight organisations picked to roll out a controversial new eligibility testing regime for the 400,000 participants in the National Disability Insurance scheme.

The company's contract will likely involve tens of thousands of assessments around the country — a huge undertaking for a firm with no apparent record of delivering major government projects.

But behind Allied Care Group's humble facade stands an emerging giant of Australia's disability support industry.

The company is in fact a subsidiary of Zenitas Healthcare, a disability and aged care juggernaut with almost 5,000 staff and more than $250 million in revenue last financial year.

Its chief executive is Rob De Luca, a former head of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), the agency which runs the NDIS.

A major question is that given Zenitas Healthcare's expertise in disability services, why did it decide to apply for the contract to provide so-called independent assessments through a subsidiary rather than directly?

It appears that by tendering through Allied Care Group, Zenitas has not been subject to strict conflict of interest rules designed to prevent existing NDIS providers from conducting independent assessments.

"The NDIA will not issue any work order or referral forms in respect of assessment services in areas whether the tenderer (or any of its subcontractors) is also … a registered NDIS provider," last year's request for tender from the NDIA reads.

"Tenderers should not tender for such areas."

In other words, companies that already provide NDIS services were blocked from tendering for the independent assessment contract in areas where they already operate.

ABC Investigations has spoken to other tenderers for the contract who believe the rule was designed to stop companies acting as both gatekeeper and service provider in the NDIS.

That was potentially a big hurdle for Zenitas, whose NDIS footprint extends across the country.

Its two major businesses, Plena Healthcare and Claro Aged Care and Disability Services, are registered in every state and territory to offer services including physiotherapy, speech pathology, personal care and specialist disability housing.

But because Allied Care Group does not offer any NDIS services, it was not in breach of the conflict of interest exclusion in the tender.

In a letter sent to tenderers in July last year, obtained by ABC Investigations, the NDIA said it would consider tenders from subsidiaries of NDIS providers.

NDIA to consider conflicts of interest

"However, tenderers must set out any actual or potential conflicts of interest in their tender. The NDIA will consider any identified conflicts of interest as part of its evaluation of risk," the letter said.

An NDIA spokesperson said it was aware that organisations carrying out independent assessments "may also contain other operations within their group that may perform other services as a provider or partner".

"The organisations within these groups are structured and operate as separate legal entities, with discreet systems, processes, workforce, resources and management structures," the NDIA spokesperson said in a statement.

"If there is a perceived conflict of interest, the NDIA and organisations manage these via a conflict of interest management plan."

Autism Awareness Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson said the disability community was concerned about potential conflicts of interests among independent assessment contractors.

"It seems that some of these companies are set up and structured as a web of companies that are profiting from every pillar of the NDIS system," she said.

"We need to get to the bottom [of this] to make sure that all of those conflicts have been investigated and ultimately the NDIS is serving individual Australians with disability and not just lining the coffers of multi-million dollar corporates."

Former NDIA chief executive David Bowen (Pictured in main image) says his former agency must maintain a strong separation between assessors and NDIS providers — especially if they are part of the same parent company.

"It certainly shouldn't be the case that an assessor employed by a subsidiary company is dealing with a participant from their parent company," he said.

However it appears there has already been some blurring between Zenitas Healthcare's NDIS provider companies and Allied Care Group.

Job advertisements posted on seek.com show Plena Healthcare has been advertising for independent assessor positions, even though it does not hold the contract for the assessments.

David Bowen believes all companies carrying out the independent assessments should disclose any potential conflicts of interest to participants they are dealing with.

"The more information in a participant's hands, the better that they are able to deal with the circumstances.

"There's nothing wrong with telling a participant and the whole sector where the assessor comes from and what their other relationships are."

He has also added his voice to criticism of the new independent assessment model, which is expected to be introduced later this year.

"I think the government's doing this to save money," he said.

"It's a way of controlling the amount of funds that go into each plan, through determining that plan value through an assessment tool, rather than through a personalised plan."

Story By | Pat McGrath and Alison McClymont