This is our report on the 2008/09 audits of the local government sector. Most of these audits were of regional and territorial local authorities and their subsidiary entities. This report also covers aspects of the energy sector, with a continued focus on electricity line businesses, and the airport sector.
The local government sector is now well used to reporting under the requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act).
In keeping with the Act, local authorities prepared their annual reports for 2008/09 in the context of the 2006-16 long-term council community plans (LTCCPs). During 2008/09, local authorities prepared and adopted new LTCCPs, covering the 10-year period 2009-19. The 2009-19 LTCCPs became operative from 1 July 2009 and are now the basis of local authorities' annual financial and performance accountability to their communities.
This was the third year after the sector's adoption of the New Zealand equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZ IFRS). As a requirement of the Act, local authorities have to prepare annual reports on a basis consistent with NZ IFRS.
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to:
- tell Parliament and the local government sector about matters arising from carrying out our role as auditor of the sector;
- describe some of the inquiries we carried out in the sector since our last report;
- highlight some matters and make some observations on other sectors; and
- summarise the findings from our performance audits and other work carried out during the year that relate to local government and other sectors covered in this report.