Our intentions: Understanding and managing the risks of a failure by a strategic supplier

9 November 2020: Public organisations often rely on third-party suppliers to provide goods and services to New Zealanders. Some suppliers provide highly specialised goods or services, with few or no other options available, and may have long-established relationships with the public organisations they are supplying. We call these "strategic suppliers".

Many aspects of the everyday lives of New Zealanders depend on the relationships public organisations have with strategic suppliers to ensure that important public services are available – from services that keep our towns and cities running, to those supporting people in need, to those keeping the borders secure.

What we’re focusing on

Our performance audit will look at how well the public sector understands the risk and impact of service disruption if a strategic supplier fails to deliver. We will also consider how the public sector is actively managing and responding to this risk.

We will look at:

how public organisations identify, assess, and report on the risk of service disruption due to a failure by a strategic supplier;
how well information on strategic supplier risks reflects the public sector’s understanding of the most significant service delivery areas for government; and
how public organisations manage the supplier risks they’ve identified.

The difference we expect to make

Our work will provide the public and Parliament with an independent view on how well the public sector understands the risks of disruption to critical public services, and identify opportunities to improve how the public sector identifies and manages these risks.

We expect to complete this work before the end of June 2021.

Please use the feedback form on the right if you’d like to speak to a staff member about this audit, make a suggestion, or ask a question.