Announcements from 2019

28 November 2019: Most government spending for the second six months of 2018/19 was properly authorised and within the law. However, we have confirmed several instances that were not properly authorised.

19 November 2019: In May 2019, Hon Judith Collins raised some concerns about KiwiBuild with our Office. We decided to look into those concerns as part of the 2018/19 annual audit of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. We have now completed that work and written back to Ms Collins with our findings.

4 November 2019: The Finance and Expenditure Committee is seeking submissions on the Public Finance (Wellbeing) Amendment Bill. This Bill proposes new requirements, for the Government to report annually on its wellbeing objectives in the Budget, and for the Treasury to report periodically on the state of wellbeing in New Zealand. We provided a submission in late October.

17 September 2019: After amendments to the Arms Act in April 2019, people who own guns and gun parts that are now prohibited, and people who don't have a valid gun licence, can hand in those guns and parts to New Zealand Police. If they have a valid licence and guns that are now prohibited, they will get compensation. The buy-back scheme is running until 20 December 2019.

17 September 2019: Our reply to Mr Lawrence Yule, MP about his concerns raised with us about the Department of Corrections' approach to procuring design and build services for rapid deployment of prison accommodation.

27 August 2019: In 2017/18, it cost more than $500 million to maintain New Zealand’s state highway network of more than 11,000km of roads. More than 90% of the network is maintained using a model called Network Outcomes Contracts.

27 August 2019: The Inland Revenue Department is spending between $1 billion and $1.7 billion on its Business Transformation programme, modernising New Zealand’s revenue system. We’re interested in whether this programme is going to deliver the benefits expected from it.

1 August 2019: Earlier this year we asked the Parliamentary Service to investigate claims that Hon Maggie Barry asked a parliamentary support staff member to carry out political party work during work hours. This is our response to Parliamentary Service’s findings.

31 July 2019: We have written back to Hon Nikki Kaye about concerns she raised with us over some teachers receiving less than the minimum wage, and about the apparent time taken to make teacher salary assessments.

10 July 2019: We have written to David Seymour MP about the decision to grant $4.6 million to the Manea Footprints of Kupe Cultural Heritage and Education Centre through the Provincial Growth Fund.

10 July 2019: Functional leadership aims to build procurement capability, improve effectiveness, and reduce the overall costs to government of common business functions. We're looking at what the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment does, how the central agencies support MBIE’s functional leadership, and government agency and third-party perceptions of it.

1 July 2019: The purpose of this letter is to update the Finance and Expenditure Committee (the Committee) on our follow up work on our 2013 discussion paper, Insuring public assets.

10 June 2019: Our focus will be on the more vulnerable communities that may have less capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the effects of a disaster.

24 May 2019: Our submission to the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission.

16 April 2019: The Provincial Growth Fund will be a focus for us in 2018/19 and beyond. We intend to carry out additional work, building on our 2017/18 annual audit of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

16 April 2019: During the Māori Affairs Committee’s Annual Review of Te Puni Kōkiri in December, committee members asked about an “incentive payment” that had been distributed to shareholders of a Whānau Ora commissioning agency. We reviewed the arrangements, and have written to Te Puni Kōkiri with our findings.

9 April 2019: The Minister of Education is consulting on proposals to reform the delivery of public vocational education in New Zealand. This is our submission on proposal 2.

9 April 2019: The Independent Taskforce on the Review of Tomorrow’s Schools has recommended changes to the education system. Although we do not have a view on the proposed structural changes to the education system, we have written to the Taskforce setting out some matters for it to consider as it develops its proposals further.

1 April 2019: Most government spending for the first six months of 2018/19 has been properly authorised and is within the law. However, we have confirmed two instances that were not properly authorised.

21 February 2019: On 4 December 2018, the Auditor-General received a request to look into claims that a staff member in Hon Maggie Barry’s office was asked to carry out political party work during work hours. We have written to Parliamentary Service with our response...

18 February 2019: The Productivity Commission has released an issues paper that will inform an inquiry into local government funding and financing. This letter provides written comments from the Office of the Auditor-General.

14 February 2019: As part of phase 2 of the Reserve Bank Act Review, the Treasury has issued a consultation document which looks at the financial policy framework for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and how it should evolve. This letter is our written submission.