15 August 2012

No V8 Supercars event inquiry required

The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) today announced it will not inquire into Auckland Council’s consideration of the V8 Supercar event.

On July 5, Auckland Council’s Strategy and Finance Committee endorsed an Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) recommendation to host an annual V8 Supercars event at Pukekohe Park. As a result of the decision a number of people asked the Auditor-General to inquire into the decision.

In forming their decision, the OAG said they had carefully considered all of the information from correspondents, and obtained additional information from Auckland Council before concluding that no further investigation of this issue is warranted

The decision to proceed with the contract was within ATEED’s mandate and delegated financial authority. It was consistent with the overall Major Events Strategy developed by ATEED and approved by the Council committee in May 2011. The Council’s Long Term Plan includes funding for the Strategy. ATEED had been negotiating with V8 Supercars since November 2011, and its Board had approved the proposed agreement. The three parties signed a Heads of Agreement on 2 July 2012.

ATEED Chief Executive, Brett O’Riley, says the OAG has confirmed that ATEED’s decision-making process “had been reasonable”, and ATEED had made attempts to brief councillors.

“As a Council CCO, our Board and management team undertake a robust process in evaluating major events proposals. We provide a summary of this work to Council and in this case we sought endorsement of our decision based on the considerable level of public interest. It was unfortunate that our approach of summarising the evaluation raised concerns, when the process has been robust,” says Mr O’Riley.

Subsequent to the 5 July decision the V8 Supercars Advisory Group, made up primarily of Auckland councilors, reviewed the due diligence into the V8 Supercars event at Pukekohe Park. ATEED also provided additional information to councillors who were absent from the 5 July meeting or requested further information.

The Auditor-General’s statement be found on http://www.oag.govt.nz/media/2012/auckland-v8-supercar-event.

ENDS

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