Part 1: Introduction
Our purpose is improving trust, promoting value in the public sector. Everything we do is focused on how well public organisations perform, account for their performance, and deliver value for money.
This annual plan is a key accountability document for our Office. It describes the discretionary work we consider will help us to achieve our ultimate outcome – that Parliament and the public can have trust and confidence in New Zealand's public sector.
The plan covers our discretionary programme of work for 2022/23 – performance audits, special studies, commentaries and research, regular reports and updates, and good practice guidance. It does not cover our mandatory audits of more than 3360 public organisations and their subsidiaries1 or the inquiries that we might carry out.2 It also does not cover the international work we do to support the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions, our work with partners at the Samoan Audit Office and Cook Islands Audit Office, or the contributions we make to the wider international auditing community.
We are updating our strategy during 2022. Normally, our annual plan would set out our high-level intentions for the next three years. This year, to retain flexibility to adjust our priorities after we update our strategy, our annual plan focuses primarily on 2022/23.
By 30 June each year, we are required to present our annual plan to the Speaker of the House of Representatives (see section 36 of the Public Audit Act 2001). The annual plan provides Parliament, the public, and the public sector the opportunity to understand our Office's priorities for the year.
1: See Appendix 2 for a summary of the types of public organisations we audit.
2: In contrast to our planned discretionary work, our inquiries work responds to matters of current concern and the number and topics we might inquire into is less predictable.