Our international work

Draft annual plan 2025/26.

There are several components to our international work:

  • The New Zealand Auditor-General is also the Auditor-General of the governments of Niue and Tokelau.
  • The Auditor-General is Secretary General of the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI). PASAI covers all supreme audit institutions in the Pacific.
  • The Office provides peer support services to the Controller and Auditor-General of Samoa and the Director of Audit of the Cook Islands.
  • We work with the global auditing community through the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) to share and build best practice and tackle common problems faced by Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).

Supporting PASAI to improve outcomes for Pacific people

PASAI supports SAIs across the Pacific region to build capability and advocates for improvements to integrity systems in their countries.

In 2025/26, we will support the Secretariat and governing board to implement the work programme for PASAI’s 2024-2034 strategy. A significant focus will be the design and delivery of a major expansion of PASAI’s technical auditor training programme.

Our peer support “twinning” relationships with the Audit Office of Samoa and the Cook Islands Audit Office will continue to focus on activities to strengthen audit quality, tailored to each twinning partner’s specific needs.

We will continue to use our influence and reputation to support PASAI by closely collaborating with SAIs and the Secretariat team to advocate for SAI independence and effective public administration systems in the Pacific. We will also work with regional development partners to invest in good governance and robust public financial management systems in the Pacific
region.

As part of PASAI’s strategy, it is undertaking a major expansion of its professional and technical training. We will contribute to this by drawing on the resources used for auditor training in New Zealand and Australia.

Progressing audits for the Governments of Niue and Tokelau

During 2024/25, we focused on bringing the audits of the Niue and Tokelau governments’ annual accountability reporting up to date for the first time in many years. In 2025/26, we will focus on completing reporting for prior year audits and providing support to address quality issues faced by both governments. Using funding provided by MFAT, we will also complete additional work to support the Niue public accounts committee and Tokelau General Fono to scrutinise the effectiveness of government spending and provide guidance on improvement initiatives.

Working with INTOSAI and others to improve public sector accountability and integrity

We have responsibilities in several INTOSAI working groups on behalf of PASAI, including the Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) and the IntoSAINT working group.

Environmental auditing

The WGEA encourages SAIs to assess the effectiveness of government programmes and spending on environmental management and outcomes. We represent PASAI on the WGEA and help to implement its programmes and activities in the Pacific region. In 2025/26, we will continue to support two climate-related projects.

The first is a global co-ordinated climate change audit, which began in 2024/25 and will be completed in 2025/26. A regional overview will be published early in the year and a global report will be published in the lead up to the Conference of the Parties (COP30) in November 2025. Nine Pacific SAIs are involved in this project, which we have actively supported through all stages. After the publication of the regional report, we will support PASAI to advocate for the issues identified through the audits.

The second project, ClimateScanner, also began in 2024/25. ClimateScanner supports Pacific SAIs to contribute to an international assessment of government climate actions. Initial reporting using this tool was completed for release at COP29, and further work to refine the tool and support Pacific SAIs to complete the assessment will continue in 2025/26.

Integrity

Building on our integrity work, we will continue to support the work of PASAI through the Auditor-General’s current role as Secretary General. As the PASAI representative on the IntoSAINT working group, we support the ongoing development of the IntoSAINT organisational integrity assessment tool and its implementation across the Pacific region.8 PASAI’s new strategy includes the increased use of this tool.

This work includes:

  • contributing to the international IntoSAINT working group, representing the Pacific region;
  • leading work to expand the group of trained IntoSAINT facilitators in the Pacific region and oversee the continued rollout of the tool to SAIs and other public organisations as part of our contribution to improving the organisational capacity of SAIs;
  • hosting integrity-themed webinars for public sector leaders in the Pacific region on behalf of PASAI; and
  • helping SAIs assess their own integrity and support assessments of public organisations using the IntoSAINT tool.

8: IntoSAINT is an organisational integrity assessment tool developed by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions. It is used to assess the vulnerabilities and the maturity of integrity in public organisations.