Building a stronger public accountability system for New Zealanders
October 2021: This discussion paper explores how well New Zealand's public accountability system is working in practice. For this work, we surveyed members of the public and interviewed people who work with the public accountability system. As public accountability is primarily about relationships between people, we focused on the views of people who experience the public accountability system and/or work with it.
Annual report 2020/21
October 2021: This 2020/21 annual report describes the work we have carried out to demonstrate how we will achieve our ultimate outcome – that Parliament and the public have trust and confidence in New Zealand's public sector.
The Government’s preparedness to implement the sustainable development goals
August 2021: In 2015, all members of the United Nations adopted The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 sustainable development goals. These goals encompass social, environmental, and economic sustainable development to improve life for current and future generations. We carried out a review of how the Government is demonstrating its commitment to the 2030 Agenda. We looked at what arrangements are in place and how the Government is encouraging stakeholders and the public to engage with efforts to achieve the goals by 2030.
Setting and administering fees and levies for cost recovery: Good practice guide
August 2021: This is an update on the guide we published in 2008, and has been expanded to cover some levies as well as fees. It also updates the principles that public organisations should consider when making any decisions on setting and administering fees and levies.
Getting it right: Managing conflicts of interest involving council employees
August 2021: In this article, we share our findings on how conflicts of interest of council employees, including the chief executive and staff, are managed across four councils.
Experiences of the family violence system in Aotearoa: An overview of research 2010 to early 2020
July 2021: We asked Carswell Consultancy to carry out a literature review of research and evaluation reports from the previous decade on family violence and sexual violence in New Zealand.
District health boards: Main findings from the 2019/20 audits
July 2021: We summarise the main findings from our 2019/20 audits of district health boards and other relevant work we have done. We highlight matters that might need attention in the year ahead, including management and governance capacity for dealing with change, tracking performance, and risk management.
Results of our 2019/20 audits of port companies
July 2021: In this report, we discuss several common trends we identified in our 2019/20 audits of port companies.
Annual plan 2021/22
June 2021: Our annual plan outlines our discretionary programme of work for 2021/22 – performance audits, special studies, regular reports and updates, and good practice guidance. This is work that we consider will help us to achieve our ultimate outcome – that Parliament and the public can have trust and confidence in New Zealand’s public sector.
Housing and urban development: The challenges and our interest
June 2021: We outline some of the challenges in housing and urban development, how the “system” works and who does what, and our interest in the housing sector. We also summarise housing-related advice we gave to the Social Services and Community Committee in February 2021.
