Overview of our financial results

Annual report 2020/21.

Operating result

For 2020/21, our Office had a surplus of $1.981 million. Our net operating results by output are summarised below.

Audit and Assurance Services
$000
Statutory Auditor Function
$000
Remuneration of Auditor-General and Deputy Auditor-General
$000
Total
$000
Revenue 95,545 17,850 1,011 114,406
Costs (95,161) (16,253) (1,011) (112,425)
Surplus/(Deficit)* 384 1,597 - 1,981

* The operating surplus excludes gain on sale of assets, which was $20,000 for the year.

The surplus of $0.384 million relating to our Audit and Assurance Services reflects the additional revenue generated from the audit of councils' long-term plans, in addition to the annual audit and other assurance engagements completed by Audit New Zealand. This surplus is transferred to our memorandum account, which was set up to help us manage the peaks and troughs in our audit fee revenue cycle.

The surplus of $1.597 million on the Statutory Auditor Function arose from the deferral of some projects to 2021/22 largely as a result of delays caused by Covid-19. The surplus is subject to an In-Principle Expense Transfer (IPET) of $1.100 million approved by the Officers of Parliament Committee (OPC) in February 2021. OPC will be asked to confirm or approve an amended amount in October 2021. The IPET currently lets us increase the available budget in 2021/22 by up to $1.100 million for the deferral of projects that were not completed in 2020/21.

Memorandum account

The surplus for the year was less than planned, mainly due to capacity constraints affecting progress on our annual audits, in addition to audits of councils' long-term plans.

Audit and Assurance Services memorandum account $000
Opening balance at 1 July 2020 (1,559)
Audit and Assurance Services surplus 384
Closing balance at 30 June 2021 (1,175)

Investment in our assets

In 2020/21, we maintained our replacement programme for IT hardware, furniture, and vehicles. We also started implementing our Information Systems Strategic Plan, which covers a five-year programme of work to improve our information systems and services across the Office.

Investment in our assets