October 2006: In the three months before the General Election on 17 September 2005, the Auditor-General became concerned that electioneering material may have been paid for by the Parliamentary Service out of resources appropriated for MPs’ and parliamentary parties’ advertising...
June 2006: The Board of Housing New Zealand Corporation asked me to consider undertaking an inquiry after allegations made by a former contractor of the Corporation appeared in the news media. The allegations were potentially serious, and warranted looking into...
April 2006: This report sets out the outcome of our inquiry into the funding arrangements for the Green Party Ministerial liaison and relationship roles...
December 2005: The findings in this report are a reminder that public entities need to manage contracting for services to ensure two outcomes. The first is that they are receiving value for money. The second is that the risks of actual or perceived impropriety, especially those associated with concurrent or former employment with the entity, are managed in a transparent way...
December 2005: This audit and inquiry followed a request for assurance from the then Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education). There were concerns about possible conflicts of interest in transactions worth large sums of money. Other issues emerged as we began our inquiry...
October 2005: The findings of this inquiry highlight the need for schools to carefully consider the ethical dimensions of conflicts of interest...
September 2005: Although the sale of the Aerodrome took place more than a decade ago, the conduct of the sale provides a useful case study of a sale of a Crown-owned asset...
July 2005: This report describes events leading up to the decision to appoint contractors, and analyses the practices followed. It also sets out our expectations of public entities involved in sole source procurement in circumstances where contestable procurement is impracticable...
November 2004, letter to Deborah Coddington MP.
November 2004: The findings of this inquiry into how CPIT managed conflicts of interest regarding the Computing Offered On-Line programme emphasise the need for public entities to carefully consider the ethical dimensions of conflicts of interest...
November 2004, letter to Deborah Coddington MP.
September 2004, letter to Hon Murray McCully MP.
October 2004: The Tertiary Education Commission raised concerns about the financial management of the scholarships by the Māori Education Trust, and the quality of the monitoring by the Ministry of Education...
September 2004, letter to Hon Murray McCully MP.
December 2003: The matter of Dr Armstrong's expenses was the subject of a complaint to us by Hon Murray McCully MP following parliamentary and media comment. These events prompted us to instigate a detailed review in order to address more fully the issues raised...
November 2003, letter to the Chief Executive, Auckland Regional Council.
November 2003: In January 2003, Hon Richard Prebble MP, leader of the ACT New Zealand parliamentary party, asked the Auditor-General to inquire into certain allegations of financial impropriety involving one of his party’s list members, Donna Awatere Huata MP...
August 2003, letter to the Chairperson of Auckland Regional Council.
July 2003, letter to Mr Rodney Hide MP.
June 2003, letter to the Minister Responsible for Crown Research Institutes.
May 2003, letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
December 2002: We conducted this inquiry as a result of a complaint from a body that represents the interests of its shareholding fishing companies and associations. The complaint was supported by specific case studies illustrating the body’s concerns about the way that the Department of Conservation manages the Conservation Services Programme...
December 2002: After its 2000-01 financial review of New Zealand Post, the Finance and Expenditure Committee recommended that we provide assurance that Transend has made improvements to its policies and procedures, following allegations about its operations...
April 2002: This report presents the results of an inquiry we undertook concerning the Taupo District Council’s funding of two entities – The Interim Establishment Board and the Lake Taupo Development Trust. These entities were created in connection with a proposal to establish a university and technology park in Taupo...
February 2002: The Ministerial Inquiry into the under-reporting of cervical smear abnormalities in the Gisborne Region raised some serious concerns about whether the National Cervical Screening Programme is as effective as it could be. The Committee of Inquiry’s report, released in April 2001, made recommendations for future action to improve the Programme. We examined the progress made and the work remaining to be done to implement the Committee of Inquiry’s recommendations...
August 2001: We have compiled this report from the markedly divergent views of the MoD, the NZDF and Army. Documentary evidence was often poor. Key decisions were often not recorded. Nevertheless, we feel that we have assembled a compelling picture that illustrates problems in the key areas of governance, relationships, accountabilities, and defence planning...
July 2001: This report contains our findings regarding a complaint made by the Concerned Citizens of the Coromandel Peninsula about certain actions of the Thames Coromandel District Council. Although the complaint raised over 50 issues, our report addresses only those issues that we considered to be most significant...
July 2001: The systems, policies, and procedures applying to salaries, allowances and other entitlements of MPs and Ministers have not always been guided by a clear set of principles or desired outcomes. We propose five principles to guide improvements to the current regime, and we present three possible options for change...
June 2001: We believe that other local authorities will find the discussion of the issues dealt with in this report helpful when faced with making similar decisions...
March 2001: This report examines the respective roles and responsibilities of the Higher Salaries Commission, the Parliamentary Service, and the Department of Internal Affairs in relation to accommodation entitlements; considers the specific cases of Marian Hobbs MP and Phillida Bunkle MP in relation to the Wellington accommodation allowance; and examines the circumstances in which a Ministerial residence was allocated to Ms Bunkle after her appointment as a Minister in 1999...
Advertising expenditure incurred by the Parliamentary Service in the three months before the 2005 General Election