Review sparked by Wagga ICAC hearing into Gladys Berejiklian calls for more grants transparency

The Department of Premier and Cabinet and the NSW Productivity Commissioner were asked by Premier Dominic Perrottet last year to carry out a review of grants administration in NSW.

The review has now come back with 19 recommendations around providing more transparency over the process of considering grants in order to improve public confidence in the system.

"Importantly, [the recommendations] do not sideline elected representatives from grants administration," the review's report said.

Wagga MP Joe McGirr said the government should "as a minimum" adopt the recommendations.

"I would hope that if the government is not adopting these recommendations that they would have good reasons to do that, but it's hard to see what they would be," Dr McGirr said.

Dr McGirr said the recommendations would help support public confidence in grants following the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing involving Wagga.

"Where a minister makes a decision that goes against the written advice of officials, that has to be documented and the input of MPs also have be written down," Dr McGirr said.

"Those recommendations would go a long way to addressing those issues."

Mr Perrottet last week welcomed the grants report but did not commit to adopting its recommendations, saying there would be a formal response from the government in coming weeks.

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Mr Perrottet announced the review just days after his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian was questioned by ICAC over claims she had a conflict of interest in $35.5 million in grants while she was in a secret relationship with former Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.

Ms Berejiklian has denied the allegations and ICAC has yet to hand down its report from the hearings.

Wagga-based Nationals MLC Wes Fang said the government had already improved the grants process and the wrong changes would affect funding for regional areas.

"MPs advocating for grants is part of how many problems get fixed," Mr Fang said.

"I don't have a lot of comfort in the idea that a pen-pusher in Sydney - who has never met with people in the area, who has never experienced the community and their wants - would be making decisions in these grant programs without local knowledge.

"Otherwise, why have local Members of Parliament? Why would you not just run the government by the bureaucracy?"