Auditor-General's report published: Public sector accountability through raising concerns

This afternoon, the Auditor-General’s report Public sector accountability through raising concerns was presented to the House of Representatives. A two-page summary of this report is also available.

Public sector accountability is built on principles of transparency, integrity, and fairness. Accountability is critical to the trust between an individual and the State. Being accountable means public entities taking responsibility for their actions, openly reporting on what they do, providing specific information when asked, welcoming scrutiny, and being responsive when challenged.

New Zealand’s public sector accountability arrangements comprise a complex web of accountability functions and inquiry agencies that deliver them. The starting point for our work on public sector accountability was to “map” the accountability functions in central government, including how these inquiry agencies and their accountability functions fit together. We shared what we learned about inquiry agencies with the Govt.nz team at the Department of Internal Affairs. They hope to use this information to add to the directory of government services on theGovt.nz website.

In this report, we discuss how easily people can make their complaints and raise their concerns through various channels and what we have learned about the strengths of, and challenges facing, six particular inquiry agencies.

The inquiry agencies we looked at are facing increasing challenges, including increased demand for their services, increased complexity of issues brought to them, and resource constraints.

Despite these difficulties, we found that that these inquiry agencies are finding smarter and more efficient ways to carry out their accountability roles.

We encourage all public sector inquiry agencies to continue to collaborate and look for new ways to improve their connections with each other. In the end, improving these connections will make it easier for people to get the right help when they need it.

We’d like your feedback: Our online reports will now include a link to a feedback form. Please tell us if you found our report useful.

Please note that our staff are now blogging about their work at auditblog, and we have Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram pages that you can follow.

ENDS

© Scoop Media