Part 6: Keeping New Zealanders informed about public sector performance and accountability

We have an important role to play in supporting New Zealanders' trust and confidence in the public sector. To have trust and confidence, New Zealanders need to be informed about the issues that matter to them in ways that are meaningful.

Our regular reporting is the main way we keep New Zealanders informed about how the public sector is performing. We intend to continue our work on understanding what information about public services New Zealanders consider relevant and important. We will also continue our work in tracking reported performance in health, housing, and education, and publicly report on this data.

The work we will carry out in 2021/22 includes:

1. a focus on public sector accountability to local and regional communities; and
2. our regular reporting.

1. Public sector accountability to local and regional communities

Our 2019 report Public accountability: A matter of trust and confidence observed that, although public officials and their agencies are primarily accountable to their Ministers and through them to Parliament, they must also maintain the trust and confidence of the public they serve. The report asked whether public accountability processes are enough to meet the current and future expectations of the public.

In 2020/21, we started a multi-year programme of work focused on what information about public services communities consider relevant and important.

Part of our work involves research into what information the public consider important to understand the performance of public services and community outcomes. We will examine what information communities want about public sector performance, where they get information now, and how they would like to access and receive information.

This research will inform our ongoing work looking at how we can support improved performance reporting in the public sector. Our research will provide useful insight into the way we present information on public sector performance.

In future years, we will consider looking at the progress and effectiveness of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Regional Skills Leadership Groups in building the skills needed for economic well-being and development in the regions. Under this new regional approach, workforce, education, and immigration systems are intended to work together to better meet the differing skills needed throughout the country.

2. Our regular reporting

Each year, we consolidate the results of our annual audits in central and local government and other sectors. We publish the main findings in sector reports and letters. We use these products to advise select committees, help keep the public informed, and help plan our work programme. We also report on the results of our annual audit of the financial statements of the Government.

In combination with our annual audits, we carry out appropriation audits of government agencies. These are designed to ensure that government expenditure is within the authority provided by Parliament. We also carry out procedures for our Controller function in keeping with a Memorandum of Understanding we have with the Treasury. We report our findings and conclusions to the Treasury throughout the year through monthly Controller reports. Every year, we present a report to Parliament that includes an account of the work carried out under our Controller function for the full financial year, along with our findings and conclusions. We also produce an interim report on our half-year findings (our work from 1 July to 31 December of each year) and various reports on matters of interest.

Other reports that we regularly publish include our follow-up reporting on public organisations' implementation of the recommendations from previous performance audits, and a review of an aspect of Auckland Council's service performance.

We are reviewing the way we follow up with agencies on how they are progressing the recommendations we make in our performance audits. Currently, we carry out about two follow-up audits each year, which we report to Parliament.

We are planning to expand this so that most performance audits are followed up within two years of the audit being completed. To achieve this, we will write to agencies asking for an update on how they are progressing the recommendations from previous performance audits. We intend to publish those responses on our website. As well as this self-reporting by agencies, we will continue our independent assessments of progress on selected performance audit recommendations.