Appendix 2: When councils adopted their annual reports and released their annual and summary annual reports

Insights into local government: 2021.

When councils adopted their annual reports

When the annual report was adopted Number adopted for financial year
2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21
Within two months after the end of the financial year 0 0 0 0 0 0
Between two and three months after the end of the financial year 27 15 15 20 6 6
Between three and four months after the end of the financial year 49 60 56 54 16 14
Between four and five months after the end of the financial year* - - - - 13 8
More than five months after the end of the financial year* - - - - 38 48*
Subtotal: Number meeting statutory deadline 76 75 71 74 73 64
Percentage of councils meeting statutory deadline 97% 96% 91% 95% 94% 82%
Between four and five months after the end of the financial year 0 2 3 3 0 0
More than five months after the end of the financial year 1 1 2 1 0 0
Not issued as at the date of compilation 1 0 2 0 5 2
Total 78 78 78 78 78 78

* Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Parliament passed legislation on 5 August 2020 to extend the statutory reporting time frames for various public entities, including local authorities, by two months. The statutory deadlines for local authorities moved from 31 October to 31 December 2021. The statutory time frames were extended to ensure that there was no reduction in financial and performance reporting because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020/21, 14 councils missed the revised deadline to complete and adopt their audited annual report by 31 December 2021.

* Forty-eight councils did not adopt their annual reports within five months of the end of the financial year. However, 36 of the 48 councils still met the extended statutory audit deadline of 31 December 2021, which was six months after the end of the financial year.

When councils released their annual reports

Time after adopting annual report Number released for financial year
2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21
0-5 days 28 23 27 34 31 38
6-10 days 15 19 11 13 9 12
11-20 days 14 8 16 11 12 11
21 days to one month 17 22 22 17 16 11
Subtotal: Number meeting statutory deadline 74 72 76 75 68 72
Percentage of councils meeting statutory deadline 95% 92% 97% 96% 86% 92%
Number not meeting the deadline 3 6 0 3 5 4
Not issued as at the date of compilation 1 0 2 0 5 2
Total 78 78 78 78 78 78

When councils released their summary annual reports

Time after adopting annual report Number released for financial year
2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21
0-5 days 16 7 15 14 16 24
6-10 days 14 15 11 8 11 8
11-20 days 11 11 10 14 9 13
21 days to one month 29 32 37 36 28 19
Subtotal: Number meeting statutory deadline 70 65 73 72 64 64
Percentage of councils meeting statutory deadline 90% 83% 94% 92% 82% 82%
One month to 40 days 6 9 2 6 7 7
41-60 days 1 4 1 0 2 4
More than 60 days 0 0 0 0 0 1
Not issued as at the date of compilation 1 0 2 0 5 2
Total 78 78 78 78 78 78