The national auditor said a lack of skilled project staff had delayed reforms to improve the Veterans' Affairs Department's technology and reduce complexity in its notorious claims system.

Delays in releasing funds and receiving approvals from the minister, defects in IT improvements, and the redeployment of staff to Services Australia to process welfare claims during COVID-19 were among setbacks.

The Australian National Audit Office report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, found the Veterans' Affairs Department had effectively rolled out the reforms four years into the program to overhaul services.

However it warned DVA to pay more attention to possible systemic issues affecting its performance, and to better monitor progress for the reform program.

Changes to government services for veterans, known as the "Veteran Centric Reform Program", is the department's largest reform effort in decades and has received more than $650 million in funding since 2017.

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It attempts to improve access to online services for veterans applying for entitlements from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, which supports 226,000 ex-services personnel and more than 100,000 of their dependants.

A 2016 review of the department found its multiple and fragmented IT systems did not allow it to efficiently manage claims, keep records or monitor payments to veterans and their families. Another review called its service delivery "disjointed, inconsistent and slow".

The Auditor-General's report released on Tuesday found delays had increased across the reform program over three years, and recommended the department regularly identify and address causes of underperformance.

It also raised flaws in the department's business cases for the reforms, and said it should provide clear and viable options for the government to manage its exposure to risks arising from the changes.

"The department did not establish the full base of evidence needed to support informed decision-making by the government on investment in reforms," the report said.

"This would have required the modelling of likely increases expected in the volume and value of accepted claims, and the rate at which determinations would be made, against an estimation of the time needed for the benefits of reform to be realised."

The department's secretary Liz Cosson said it agreed to the audit report's recommendations, and that reforms had helped improve its services.

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