Our intended impacts

We aim to achieve our intended impacts through our various services, including providing advice to Parliament, monitoring spending against parliamentary appropriations, and carrying out our annual audits.

What went well	What didn’t go to plan
Feedback from parliamentary select committees confirms that our advice and reports are valued and helpful. There was a significant decrease in the number of instances of unappropriated expenditure (results are reported for the previous financial year). There was an increase in the percentage of annual audit recommendations implemented by large public organisations since 2020/21, despite the challenging operating environment.	The number of citations in the media about our work decreased by 8.3%. However, there was a significant increase in media coverage on our work the previous year due to our audits of councils' long-term plans (which we carry out every three years). The number of media citations about our work in 2021/22 was similar to the number in 2019/20.

Results from 2021/22 show that we are progressing towards our intended impacts. Our annual audit recommendations, inquiry reports, and the recommendations from our performance audits help public organisations to improve their performance. Encouraging public organisations to implement the recommendations from our work is an important way we can help improve public sector performance and accountability.

Impact 1: Parliament provides effective scrutiny of the public sector

Our advice and reports to parliamentary select committees helps them to hold the public sector to account. The information we provide must be relevant, reliable, and timely. We have received feedback that confirms our reports and advice to Parliament are effective.

Impact 2: New Zealanders are better informed about the performance and accountability of the public sector

We aim to focus our work on issues that are important to New Zealanders. We measure this through the number of citations in the media about our work.

Impact 3: The public sector improves its performance and accountability

We look at a range of activities to assess whether we are having a positive influence on the performance and accountability of the public sector. We assess whether instances of government departments spending public money without parliamentary authority have reduced.