Our strategic direction
In 2022/23, the Auditor-General reached the mid-point of his seven-year term. He commissioned a review to consider the challenges the Office faces and confirm the priorities for the rest of his term.
The review found that good progress had been made with our strategy. This has included:
- broadening the focus and approach of our performance audits, inquiries, and other work with a view to increasing our impact;
- doing more to influence improvements in public accountability; and
- investing more in our people, systems, and data and analytics to improve our capacity and capability.
It also pointed to where we could do more.
In March 2023, we published The Auditor-General’s strategic intentions to 2028. This is our strategic planning document and is informed by the Auditor-General’s mid-term review. It builds on the foundations set out in The Auditor-General’s strategic intentions to 2025 and sets out what we want to achieve and the outcomes we are working towards.
Our focus over the next five years is to:
- strengthen our core assurance role to ensure that the public audit system is sustainable over the long term;
- increase our impact with public organisations by influencing positive change in their performance and accountability practices;
- enhance our impact in te ao Māori to help Parliament and the public hold public organisations to account in a way that iwi, hapū, and whanau Māori, as well as Parliament and the wider public, have trust and confidence in; and
- build on our reputation as a source of trusted information about public sector performance and accountability.
The progress we have made on our strategic priorities is described in the performance results for the services we deliver (see Our Services). We also describe the main areas we have focused on to improve our organisational capability.
Our Annual plan 2022/23 set out our programme of work for the year. In this report, we describe our progress against our annual plan. We regularly review the work in our annual plan so that it remains relevant and responsive to the dynamic and changing operating environment. Appendix 4 provides a summary of progress made during the year on the work programme set out in our Annual plan 2022/23.
The key strategic risks we manage
Our key strategic risks are:
- loss of independence;
- audit failure;
- loss of capability; and
- loss of reputation.
We actively manage these risks through the processes that support our work. This includes our Audit and Risk Committee, which provides advice on risk and how to mitigate it. See Appendix 1 for the Committee’s report for the year ended 30 June 2023.
Positioning Audit New Zealand for the future
In 2022/23, we completed a review of Audit New Zealand. The review looked at how we can ensure the long-term sustainability of Audit New Zealand and maximise the benefits of our investment in new technology for audit delivery and practice management.
There has been a significant under-investment in Audit New Zealand over many years. For Audit New Zealand to remain effective and efficient, we must invest in new audit tools, methodologies, systems, and technologies.
Balancing Audit New Zealand's capacity and capability against its audit portfolio will ensure that it can maintain the quality of its work, its engagement with public organisations, and how it manages its business.
In 2023/24, we will begin implementing the findings of our review and continue to improve how Audit New Zealand carries out its work.