Part 1: About us
Who we are
The Office of the Auditor-General of New Zealand.
Our role
The Auditor-General is the auditor of every public entity in New Zealand that is required to publicly report (about 3600), many of which are funded by rates or taxes. They include, for example, government departments, district health boards, schools, licensing and community trusts, universities and polytechnics, local authorities, and State-owned enterprises.
The Auditor-General's work is carried out by nearly 400 staff in two business units – the Office of the Auditor-General and Audit New Zealand – supported by a shared team of corporate services staff. We also contract auditors from private sector accounting firms to carry out some audits on the Auditor-General's behalf. We call this whole organisation "the Office".
Our purpose
We give Parliament and New Zealanders an independent view about public sector performance and accountability.
Our vision
A high-performing and trusted public sector.
Our strategic intentions
The Auditor-General's strategic intentions to 2025, published in July 2017, set out our direction for the next eight years and describes our three strategic objectives:
- improving New Zealanders' trust and confidence in the public sector;
- strengthening the public sector; and
- leading by example.
Our strategic risks
Our strategic risks are:
- loss of independence;
- audit failure;
- loss of capability; and
- loss of reputation.
We manage these risks through the processes that support the work we do. Our Audit and Risk Committee gives further insight and advice to help us identify and manage risk. The Committee's report for the year ended 30 June 2018 is available on our website.
Our performance framework
Our performance framework summarises the outcomes we seek, the effects we aim to have, the services we provide, and the resources we must manage well. A review of our performance measures is currently in progress. We expect to report more about the revised performance measures in our next annual report.
Overview of our performance in 2017/18
We give Parliament and New Zealanders an independent view about public sector performance and accountability.
| What we did | ||||
| Provided advice and support for effective parliamentary scrutiny | Monitored spending against parliamentary appropriations | Audited information reported by public entities about their performance | Carried out inquiries into matters of public interest | Assessed public sector performance and accountability |
| Measures indicating how well we did | ||||
| Parliament confirmed that our advice assisted them in their scrutiny of public sector performance. Parliament confirmed that our work was relevant and useful. |
All procedures for our Controller function work were followed, and agreed time frames were met. | Our annual audit work influenced improvements and was mostly timely. The methods we use to allocate and tender audits and monitor audit fees were independently assessed as fair and reasonable. Our auditors’ work met required standards. We have more work to do to better meet our clients’ expectations. |
Our inquiries work influenced improvements in the public sector. We have more work to do on the timeliness of our inquiries. |
Our performance audits influenced improvements in the public sector. We have more work to do on the timeliness of our performance audits. |
| What it cost | ||||
| $3.07 million | $0.12 million | $83.76 million | $1.75 million | $4.33 million |