Our recommendations

We recommend that, to strengthen its governance, accountability, and programme management arrangements generally, the Board of Auckland Transport:

1. clearly define the project's and programme's expected benefits and report regularly to funders on the benefits realised;
2. regularly monitor major projects to ensure that risks are being managed and that projects are on track to deliver their intended outcomes;
3. ensure that Gateway reviews of major transport projects, including those that comprise the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative, include an assessment of how likely it is that a project will successfully deliver the intended outcomes; and
4. ensure that those conducting Gateway and other assurance reviews have appropriate independence relative to the project's risks, scale, and nature.

We recommend that, to strengthen the governance, accountability, and programme management arrangements for the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative, Auckland Transport:

5. clearly define the roles and responsibilities of staff charged with making financial decisions for getting quality assurance and the form that quality assurance should take;
6. prepare guidance on significant matters that should be referred upwards – for example, to programme control groups, senior managers, or the Board of Auckland Transport;
7. when reporting on programme performance, include information about how contractors perform and the health of stakeholder relationships, so that these matters can be better managed and governed; and
8. decide what value the Key Stakeholder Forum has in the programme governance structure. If Auckland Transport decides to keep the Forum, it needs to use the Forum to share programme and project information with stakeholders effectively.

Recommendations for the Programme Control Group

We recommend that, to strengthen the governance, accountability, and programme management arrangements for the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative, Auckland Transport:

9. ensure that Programme Control Group members have the full range of skills and experience needed and that the Group's chairperson is not involved in managing the programme;
10. address inconsistencies in the Programme Control Group's roles and responsibilities and ensure that all staff working in or with the Group are aware of any revisions to documents and practice;
11. review the logistics of providing information and meeting cycles for the Programme Control Group to provide information earlier and get information and meeting times more in line; and
12. use more formal channels of communication to and from the Programme Control Group and to the Board of Auckland Transport.

Auckland Transport told us that it has already started to act on several of our recommendations. We have included its response in the Appendix.