Service 1: Provide advice and support for effective parliamentary scrutiny
| What went well | What didn’t go to plan |
|---|---|
| Despite Covid-19 and challenges for our auditors in completing audits, we worked closely with Parliament to ensure that our advice was given in keeping with select committee schedules. We supported select committees to carry out their scrutiny of public sector performance by improving our briefings with enhanced analysis of performance reporting. |
There were no specific issues in this area. |
This service is funded through the appropriation Statutory Auditor Function MCA, Supporting Accountability to Parliament Category. The amount appropriated for this category in the Main Estimates for 2022/23 was $6.459 million.
We assist Parliament’s scrutiny of public sector performance by providing advice and support. This includes giving advice to select committees to assist their annual reviews of public organisations and their scrutiny of Estimates of Appropriations.
In 2022/23, the public sector continued to implement and prepare for fundamental reforms in the tertiary education sector, the health sector, and in three waters services. We are preparing approaches to respond to these changes.
We continued our efforts to understand the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on public organisations and on public spending.
In 2022/23, we continued looking at cross-agency and sector-level work in the public sector to support select committees’ interest in this work. For example, we provided 16 sector briefings that covered multiple public organisations and/or functions to support select committees’ efforts to take a broader approach to scrutiny, which the 2020 review of Standing Orders encouraged.
We want our briefings for annual reviews and Estimates of Appropriations to be valuable for select committees in their scrutiny of public organisations.
We provided select committees with 101 briefings for annual reviews and 56 briefings for Estimates of Appropriations. We also issued 153 letters to portfolio Ministers summarising the findings from our audits of public organisations.
We provided input to the review of Standing Orders and have started to prepare for supporting the new Parliament after the general election in October.
Timeliness measures
Indicator: Percentage of briefing papers that are submitted to select committees by the agreed deadline
Target: 100%
| Year | Result |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 99% |
| 2021/22 | 99% |
| 2020/21 | 100% |
| 2019/20 | 98% |
| 2018/19 | 100% (Revised measure for 2019/20) |
Note: We revised the wording of this measure for 2019/20. Previously, it was “Briefings are given to select committees at least two days before examination, unless otherwise agreed”.
Quality measures
Indicator: Percentage of parliamentary select committees that rate our advice as at least “satisfactory”
Target: 100%
| Year | Result |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | Not assessed* |
| 2021/22 | 100% |
| 2020/21 | Not assessed* |
| 2019/20 | 100% |
| 2018/19 | Revised measure for 2019/20 |
* Our surveys of select committee chairpersons are carried out every two years.
Indicator: Percentage of parliamentary select committees that rate our reports on inquiries, performance audits, and other studies as at least “satisfactory”
Target: 100%
| Year | Result |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | Not assessed |
| 2021/22 | 100% |
| 2020/21 | Not assessed |
| 2019/20 | 100% |
| 2018/19 | Revised measure for 2019/20 |
Source: Our surveys of select committee chairpersons, which are carried out every two years. The most recent survey was in 2021/22 and the next will be in 2023/24.
The following diagram shows the workflow pattern of the support we provided to parliamentary select committees in 2022/23.
Our support to Parliament and Ministers
