Statement of responsibility

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangarangatanga maha o te motu, tēnā koutou.

I am pleased to present the strategic intentions of the Controller and Auditor-General (the Auditor-General) for 2020/21 to 2024/25.

The Auditor-General's strategic intentions reflect the changes that we are seeing in New Zealand and globally, including the response to the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Our strategic intentions describe the outcomes and impacts we are wanting to achieve. In this edition of our strategic intentions, we have included information about our medium-term strategy to 2021 and our organisation development plan. Together, these two documents provide a more complete picture of what we are focusing on to enable us to be successful.

Our medium-term strategy and organisation development plan were finalised after we last published our strategic intentions in 2017, so this is our first opportunity to bring the whole picture together.

The outcomes we seek are ambitious and, while we recognise that we cannot achieve them on our own, our strategic intentions describe how we will support the public sector to meet the needs of Parliament and New Zealanders.

We also recognise that the Covid-19 pandemic will significantly affect the financial and service performance of many public organisations, and the public sector will need to manage these effects for many years to come. As we develop our future work programme, we will be considering different ways in which we can support the public sector in the work it is doing on recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic.

I acknowledge that I am responsible for the information in The Auditor-General's strategic intentions to 2025 and wish to take this opportunity to thank Parliament, staff, our audit service providers, and our many stakeholders for their contributions and commitment to the future direction of the Office of the Auditor-General. I am confident that we have a clear direction and focus that allows us to contribute even more to achieving a high-performing and accountable public sector that has the trust and confidence of Parliament and New Zealanders.

Nāku noa, nā

John Ryan
Controller and Auditor-General

25 May 2020