What went well in 2023/24

We returned the timeliness of large audits to pre-pandemic levels

We are back to pre-pandemic timeliness levels with the annual audits of large public organisations, having completed 86% on time this year.

We audited council long-term plans

Amid significant uncertainty and challenges for the local government sector, which affected the content of councils' planning, the timing of some plans, and their readiness for audit, we completed audits of 36 council long-term plans.

We made significant progress on ensuring the sustainability of Audit New Zealand

We have positioned Audit New Zealand for the future by implementing a successful recruitment programme and a programme of audit practice management improvements. We also started to move to more sustainable audit fees. Audit New Zealand is on track financially, and will now start to increase its audit workload over the next three years through the allocation of new audits.

We helped Parliament implement its improvements to scrutiny

In response to changes to Standing Orders, we increased our support to select committees to help them improve their scrutiny of public organisations. Feedback indicates that our support and advice were valued highly by committee members.

We introduced new, improved ways of doing our work

We took a fresh approach to our work, including carrying out our first "rapid audit" (for which we received a Performance Audit Innovation Award from the Australasian Council of Auditors-General) and hosting our inaugural Public Sector Integrity Day.

We introduced new technologies

We introduced a new audit management tool for Audit New Zealand and a new audit management portal for managing our overall audit portfolio.

We increased our impact in the Pacific

We made a significant contribution to strengthening public sector accountability, transparency, and good governance in the Pacific region. This included working with the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) to develop a new 10-year strategy, supporting our twinned SAIs in the Cook Islands and Samoa, and making progress on regularising the audits in Niue and Tokelau.