7 October 2011

Treasury strengthens gifts and hospitality policy

The Treasury is to strengthen its gifts and hospitality policy following a review by an independent auditor.

Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf announced in July that as part of a review of policy, the organisation would periodically publish a register of the gifts and hospitality received by its staff. In conjunction with this, Deloitte was asked to review the Treasury’s gifts and hospitality policy.

That review has now been completed, said Mr Makhlouf.

“The Treasury accepts and will adopt all recommendations made in the report by Deloitte, which concluded that our gifts and hospitality policy was generally consistent with State Services Commission and Office of the Auditor-General guidance and principles.

“The recommendations have informed our new Gifts and Hospitality Policy, and we will use them to strengthen our policy and practices.”

The two guiding principles remain that:

• Treasury staff should not accept gifts or hospitality unless there is a clear business benefit to the Treasury that exceeds any private benefit.

• Treasury staff must refuse all gifts or hospitality that could reasonably be seen or perceived as undermining the integrity of individual Treasury staff, the Treasury or the wider state sector.

Other points to note are that:

• Gifts will not be accepted except where they have a value of less than $50, or where refusing them might cause embarrassment or offence.

• All offers of gifts or hospitality with a value of $50 or more will be recorded on the gift and hospitality register, irrespective of whether or not they are accepted.

• There will be a requirement to record the business rationale for gifts and hospitality received.

• The Policy applies to all Treasury staff.

“The Treasury takes seriously its role as leader of best practice across the public service,” Mr Makhlouf said. “I have initiated the periodic publication of our register to promote greater accountability.”

Deloitte, as the independent internal auditor of the Treasury’s internal policies, will continue to monitor adherence to the Policy.

The Treasury’s Gifts and Hospitality Policy and the Deloitte review are available at http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases/giftregister

ENDS

Scoop copies of documents
tsygiftpolicyoct11.pdf
deloittegiftoct11.pdf

© Scoop Media