Canterbury

Cover image - Sep 25, 2019 Crown investment in freshwater clean-up

September 2019: We examined how the Ministry for the Environment administered four Crown freshwater clean-up funds for improving lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands. Our primary objective was to assess whether Crown funding was being used effectively to improve freshwater quality.

Cover image - May 07, 2018 Monitoring how water is used for irrigation

May 2018: This is our first of seven audits that will look at how public organisations manage water. For this audit, we looked at how freshwater used for irrigation is tracked and measured. This included looking at how well water meter installation was managed, the quality of data collected from water meters, how the data was used, and whether this was leading to positive changes in the way water is used. We focused on five regional councils and one unitary council from six different regions.

Cover image - Dec 04, 2017 Getting the right information to effectively manage public assets: Lessons from local authorities

December 2017: Elected councillors need relevant and reliable information to make good decisions about managing the assets they govern. As communities and environments change, the challenges that local authorities face and decisions they make are becoming more complex. We looked at how five local authorities approached identifying and gathering the right information about their assets...

Cover image - Feb 08, 2017 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority: Assessing its effectiveness and efficiency

January 2017: In our view, CERA did well early on in the recovery. CERA was also effective in leading a co-ordinated government response to the earthquakes. However, CERA found it challenging to maintain momentum. Its role became less clear as it took on more responsibility for delivering more projects and programmes. CERA did not engage the community well, and struggled to demonstrate its effectiveness and value for money because it had inadequate performance measures and information. It also took a long time for CERA to set up effective systems and controls. CERA’s management controls and performance information needed improvement right up to the time of its disestablishment.

Cover image - May 11, 2016 Effectiveness and efficiency of arrangements to repair pipes and roads in Christchurch - follow-up audit

May 2016: We found out that the public entities have made good progress in addressing the recommendations that we made in our 2013 report. SCIRT has made solid progress in repairing damaged pipes and roads. Also, the public entities have improved the governance arrangements over SCIRT. These improvements include clearer roles and responsibilities, more effective guidance and clearer direction to SCIRT, and improvements in reporting.

Cover image - Dec 07, 2015 Governance and accountability for three Christchurch rebuild projects

December 2015: This report looks at the governance arrangements for three projects to rebuild essential facilities in Christchurch: the Bus Interchange, the New Central Library, and the Acute Services Building at Christchurch Hospital. We found that governance was most effective when there was a clear structure and when accountabilities, roles, and responsibilities were well defined and understood. Strong leadership was an important part of effective governance, and being clear about who is accountable for project outcomes supports effective governance.

Cover image - Nov 30, 2015 Earthquake Commission: Managing the Canterbury Home Repair Programme - follow-up audit

December 2015: EQC has continued to manage some things well. These include the management of actual repair costs, the management of health and safety, securing reinsurance, and high levels of surveyed customer satisfaction with the quality of repairs immediately on completion of the repairs. Despite the improvements made, EQC could still learn better from complaints and improve its customer focus and interactions.

Cover image - Nov 11, 2013 Effectiveness and efficiency of arrangements to repair pipes and roads in Christchurch

November 2013: The report looks at the arrangement to repair and rebuild the roads and underground water, wastewater, and stormwater pipes in Christchurch. The report examines how effectively and efficiently the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, the New Zealand Transport Agency, and Christchurch City Council are reinstating this “horizontal infrastructure” through an alliance called the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT). SCIRT demonstrates many of the good practice characteristics of alliancing. It is capitalising on its valuable resource of highly trained specialists to develop practical solutions, and project scoping is done well. SCIRT has sound business systems that create operational efficiencies. When relevant variables are considered, SCIRT projects seem reasonably priced ...

Cover image - Nov 04, 2013 Earthquake Commission: Managing the Canterbury Home Repair Programme

October 2013: In our view, the Earthquake Commission's (EQC) performance to date has been mixed. It has performed well in managing repair costs and setting the home-repair programme up quickly, but has not performed as well in dealing with homeowners. Although efficiency is clearly important, this report is a timely reminder for EQC and others that being in the public service means serving the needs of people ...

Cover image - Jun 24, 2013 Insuring public assets

June 2013: The purpose of this paper is to provide a high-level view of the extent of insurance for many of the assets in the public sector and the main changes since 2010. By doing this, we hope to encourage further discussion by provoking relevant questions about insurance of public assets...

Cover image - Jun 20, 2011 Meeting demand for drinking water: Information for teachers

This case study explains how drinking water is supplied and how demand is forecast, and describes strategies to meet demand. It looks at what characterises effective management of water supplies. Students can reflect on the challenges that local authorities face and the efficacy and sustainability of strategies to meet water demand. They could go on to explore water-supply management practices in their local area.

Cover image - Apr 30, 2007 Waste management planning by territorial authorities

April 2007: All territorial authorities must adopt a waste management plan. In this audit, we checked whether all had done so, and whether six were implementing them. Some of the plans were out of date or did not contain all the information we expected...