Responses to our recommendations about the co-ordination of the all-of-government response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020

We requested this update because we want to provide public transparency on progress with addressing our recommendations.

In 2022, our report Co-ordination of the all-of-government response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 looked at what happened during the pandemic response in 2020. We wanted to understand how resources and efforts across the public sector were co-ordinated and how officials improved the response as the pandemic unfolded. We also identified lessons that might help New Zealand better prepare for future emergencies.

Overall, we found that public servants were resourceful and showed initiative while working extraordinary hours over an extended period, which was critical to the response’s success. However, we cannot just rely on good people; New Zealand needs a better level of overall emergency preparedness, and Covid-19 was a wake-up call.

We recommended that the four organisations and other relevant organisations continue to work together to:

• ensure that there is central co-ordination and clear roles and responsibilities for emergency management;
• ensure that key staff maintain a good understanding of all-of-government emergency management (and equivalent frameworks, legislation, and guidelines);
• develop and maintain workforce plans for sustainably staffing long-term emergency responses (including plans for recruitment and staff well-being);
• demonstrate how they are making improvements during an ongoing response;
• improve the transparency of their response plans and their engagement with the public; and
• provide regular assurance to Parliament about the public sector’s readiness for emergencies, including how they have implemented our recommendations.

Read what the four organisations have said about their progress with those recommendations:

• The full combined responses of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the National Emergency Management Agency, in HTML or as sent to us in PDF (623KB, 11 pages)
• The full response of Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, in HTML or as sent to us in PDF (870KB, 39 pages).
• The full response of the Ministry of Health, in HTML or as sent to us in PDF (522KB, 8 pages).

We have not audited the information in this update.

At this stage, we do not plan to carry out any further performance audit work to follow up on our 2022 report. Our Sector Managers will continue to seek further updates from the four organisations as part of their usual engagement.

We have written a letter to the Finance and Expenditure Committee about our wider Covid-19 and emergency management related work, as well as this follow up work.