What did not go well in 2023/24

Trust in public services has declined

Although New Zealand does well when compared globally on measures of trust, there are indications that trust in public services has declined. The results of the most recent Kiwis Count survey shows a decline in the levels of public trust in public services, and Māori, Pacific, and disabled respondents continue to have lower trust levels than other groups. In 2023, New Zealand scored its lowest score on the Corruption Perceptions Index since 1995. Although the Office does not directly control levels of trust and is only one of many organisations that seek to influence trust, this shift is one we will continue to monitor.

We did not complete all mandatory audits on time

Some audit opinions were signed late. The late signing of audit opinions for large organisations was mainly due to organisations not being ready for the audit. For smaller organisations, the late signing of audit opinions was mainly due to the availability of auditors. It remains a challenge to complete our audits of smaller organisations in a timely manner, including audits of schools.

Some of our discretionary work has been delayed

We did not meet our timeliness measures across our whole work programme, with 11 items of work originally planned to be completed this year moving into 2024/25 (see Appendix 3). Some of the deferrals were because of changes outside of our control, while others were due to our internal quality processes taking longer than planned.

Some of our letters to Ministers on annual audits were delivered later than normal

The flow-on effects of some audit delays, coupled with the delay in appointing new Ministers after the General Election, affected the timeliness of some of our letters to Ministers.

Our reporting still has some gaps

Although we reduced our carbon emissions, we did not establish reduction targets as we intended. We were also unable to develop an indicator for Outcome 2 (A high-performing public sector). In both cases we had concerns about the data underlying the work. We were also unable to establish a consistent approach to measuring our own integrity, mainly due to competing resource pressures. Work continues in these three areas.