Our recommendations

These recommendations are to assist the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, New Zealand Transport Agency, Christchurch City Council, and the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team in dealing with the challenges and risks associated with the horizontal infrastructure rebuild.

We acknowledge the changes that were taking place at the time of our audit, such as the revised governance arrangements that were being introduced, work on clarifying the levels of service to be delivered, and work on strengthening how the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team's performance is measured to provide greater assurance over the value the alliance is delivering. Our recommendations encourage ongoing improvement.

We recommend that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Christchurch City Council, and the New Zealand Transport Agency:

1. change the governance framework to address ambiguity about roles and responsibilities, including the role and responsibilities of the independent chairperson.

We recommend that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority:

2. contribute more consistently to effective leadership and strategic direction for the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team.

We recommend that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Christchurch City Council, and the New Zealand Transport Agency:

3. use the governance arrangements to provide timely guidance to the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team on the priorities and direction of the rebuild;

4. agree on the levels of service and quality of infrastructure that the rebuild will deliver, in conjunction with confirming funding arrangements, and consider a second independent review of the Infrastructure Recovery Technical Standards and Guidelines;

5. use a coherent framework for measuring key aspects of the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team's performance that integrates project-level delivery team performance with alliance objectives and overall programme delivery, and is based on sound measures tested through the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team's internal auditing regime;

6. ensure that their framework for auditing the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team provides them with adequate assurance that the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team is well managed and delivering value for money; and

7. in conjunction with strengthening performance measures, provide feedback to the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team to improve the analysis and information included in reports to the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team Board and make these reports more useful.