Section A

Part 1 – Introduction

Part 2 – Timeliness in annual reporting

• Background
• Adopting annual reports
• Releasing annual reports to the public
• Releasing summary annual reports to the public

Part 3 – Financial trends in the annual reports of local authorities

• Why we are reporting this information
• The information that we considered
• Operating revenue
• Operating expenditure
• Cash flows
• Capital expenditure
• Debt
• Indicators of financial sustainability
• Group financial information

Part 4 – The financial reporting environment

• Changes in the financial reporting environment
• Financial reporting challenges

Part 5 – Reporting alternative performance measures

• Why we were uneasy
• Our expectations for reporting underlying profit
• Underlying profit disclosures in 2011

Part 6 – The relationship between local authorities and their chief executives

• Appointing and reappointing chief executives
• What constitutes pre-determination?
• How chief executives' pay is set and disclosed
• The relative responsibilities of chief executives and elected members

Part 7 – Activities to reduce and manage greenhouse gas emissions

• Background
• The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme
• Measuring greenhouse gas emissions
• Monitoring and reporting on how local authorities generate and dispose of waste
• Plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Targets for reducing emissions and how these are reported
• Offsetting emissions
• Next steps

• Overview of leaky home liabilities
• The Government's Financial Assistance Package
• The kinds of claims that local authorities face
• Accounting for leaky home liabilities
• Our review of how four local authorities accounted for leaky home liabilities

Part 9 – Non-standard audit reports

• Why we report this information
• What is a non-standard audit report?
• Adverse opinions
• Disclaimers of opinion
• Qualified opinions
• "Emphasis of matter" paragraphs
• "Other matter" paragraphs

Appendices

• 1 – Reported effects of the Canterbury earthquakes
• 2 – Details of the non-standard audit reports issued in 2011