List of our conflicts of interest resources

June 2020: The Local Authorities (Members' Interests) Act 1968 (the Act) is somewhat out of date and difficult to understand, and the rules are not always easy to apply in a modern local government context. That is why we have written this plain English guide. We want members who are covered by the Act, and those advising them, to be aware of the Act's rules and the steps they need to take to ensure that they do not inadvertently breach them. This guide also explains our statutory functions under the Act.

June 2020: In this guide, we describe conflicts of interest in the public sector, and how to identify, disclose, and manage them. It represents our view of what constitutes good practice in the public sector.

March 2019: This report concerns a decision of the Westland District Council to carry out work at Franz Josef to protect the town's wastewater treatment plant from flooding. The work was carried out on an urgent basis and resulted in the construction of a new 700-metres-long stopbank on the bank of the Waiho River. In this report, we acknowledge the serious nature of the flood risk the Council was dealing with, and the motivation of the elected members who were driving the decision to act in the community's best interests. However, we have serious concerns about what was done in this case.

October 2015: We found that the chief executive’s involvement did not influence or contribute to any substantive aspects of the Council’s policy for special housing areas. The Mayor and Council took appropriate steps to manage the conflict of interest. The chief executive took no part in recommendations or decisions about special housing areas after declaring his interest. We also found that the conflict affected the chief executive’s ability to advise the Council about special housing areas and provide leadership to council staff in this area.

14 May 2015

October 2014: This report looks at how three elected members of Ashburton District Council managed conflict of interest questions recently...

Ashburton District Council: Allegations of conflicts of interest affecting decisions on a second bridge.

26 June 2013

August 2012: This report sets out our conclusions on our inquiry into the dispute between the Far North District Council and the Mayor of the Council, Mr Wayne Brown, about the rates and other charges owed by Mr Brown's company, Waahi Paraone Limited.

April 2012: The Office of the Auditor-General received correspondence in late 2011, raising concerns about Mr Tony Marryatt’s roles as a director of Civic Assurance and as chief executive of Christchurch City Council. Our report and letter in response are reproduced here.

December 2009: We have concluded that the councillors have breached section 6(1) of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968. However, we have decided that a prosecution would be unlikely to result in a conviction and that it would not be appropriate in these circumstances to seek to have the councillors prosecuted...

November 2009: Although our findings are of greatest interest to people in the Thames-Coromandel district, we note that most local authorities have extensive land holdings. Our findings from this inquiry reinforce the importance for all local authorities to have in place effective systems and processes to manage their land well on behalf of their communities...

August 2008: The Auditor-General decided in October last year to conduct an inquiry into the operations of the West Coast Development Trust (the Trust), after receiving information on the workings of the Trust, including allegations of conflicts of interest...

November 2007: We looked at how conflicts of interest are dealt with in each of the three Auckland District Health Boards (the Auckland DHB, the Counties Manukau DHB, and the Waitemata DHB)...

Local government: Results of the 2005/06 audits.

Local government: Results of the 2004-05 audits.

June 2006: The Local Government Act 2002 created a new legal requirement for each local authority to adopt a code of conduct for its elected members. We examined councils' experiences in developing and using their codes...

Central government: Results of the 2004-05 audits.

December 2005: The findings in this report are a reminder that public entities need to manage contracting for services to ensure two outcomes. The first is that they are receiving value for money. The second is that the risks of actual or perceived impropriety, especially those associated with concurrent or former employment with the entity, are managed in a transparent way...

December 2005: This audit and inquiry followed a request for assurance from the then Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education). There were concerns about possible conflicts of interest in transactions worth large sums of money. Other issues emerged as we began our inquiry...

November 2005, presentation to the LexisNexis Public Sector In-house Counsel Forum.

October 2005: The findings of this inquiry highlight the need for schools to carefully consider the ethical dimensions of conflicts of interest...

Local government: Results of the 2003-04 audits.

June 2005: This report is a discussion paper, written to highlight what we see as difficulties with the current Act, and to suggest some options for how the Act might be improved...

April 2005, presentation to the 4th Annual LexisNexis Local Government Legal Forum.

November 2004: The findings of this inquiry into how CPIT managed conflicts of interest regarding the Computing Offered On-Line programme emphasise the need for public entities to carefully consider the ethical dimensions of conflicts of interest...

Local government: results of the 2002-03 audits.

December 2003: The matter of Dr Armstrong's expenses was the subject of a complaint to us by Hon Murray McCully MP following parliamentary and media comment. These events prompted us to instigate a detailed review in order to address more fully the issues raised...

November 2003: In January 2003, Hon Richard Prebble MP, leader of the ACT New Zealand parliamentary party, asked the Auditor-General to inquire into certain allegations of financial impropriety involving one of his party’s list members, Donna Awatere Huata MP...

PDF of Part 2.4 within the report on the results of the 2001-02 local government audits.