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4.5.5. Reporting obligations and publication

A major activity of the CAG every year is the audit of the annual financial statements of the government. According to the PFA (s. 30), the CAG must provide an audit report on those statements to the Treasury within 30 days of receiving them. This enables the Treasury to forward them to the Minister of Finance, who presents the audit report to the HR within 10 working days after receiving them from the Treasury. In total, the PFA requires that the audit report is transmitted to Parliament within a period of three months and 10 working days after the end of the financial year.

The PAA (s. 37) requires the CAG to prepare and present an annual report to the HR, which must include: the audited financial statements prepared in accordance with section 35 of the PFA and audited in accordance with section 39 of that act; an account of the implementation of the annual plan; and a list of the entities audited by the CAG. In addition to the annual report, the PAA requires the CAG to report at least once every calendar year to the HR on matters arising out of the performance and exercise of the CAG’s functions, duties, and powers (s. 20). Furthermore, the CAG may report to a minister, a committee of the HR, a public entity, or any person on any matter arising out of the performance and exercise of the CAG’s functions, duties, and powers that the CAG considers it desirable to report on (s. 21). For local government entities, the CAG may direct the public entity to table the report during a meeting of the public entity that is open to the public (s. 22).

The PAA also requires the CAG to publish, by way of a report to the HR, the auditing standards that the CAG applies, or intends to apply, to the conduct of audits and inquiries and the provision of other auditing services (s. 23). All reports presented to Parliament or otherwise published are publicly available on the AG’s Internet site (www.oag.govt.nz). Printed copies of most reports may also be available.

4.5.6. Enforcement of findings

The PAA does not provide any special provisions for the enforcement of findings. However, the audit reports presented to the HR by the CAG play key roles in overseeing the government’s financial activities by giving the Parliament an independent opinion on whether public entities are operating and accounting for their performance in accordance with Parliament’s intentions.

Notes

1.Draft estimates of expenditures are grouped into “Votes” with one or more “Vote” for each minister. Normally, there is one vote for each ministerial portfolio except where the portfolio relates to more than one department. While it is common for

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a department to administer just one vote, there are a number of multi-vote departments providing outputs to more than one minister.

2.The 2004 Act clarified the Crown entities to be included and, for the first time, required the central bank to be included in government financial statements.

3.The NZDMO’s main responsibilities include: developing and maintaining a portfolio management framework that promotes the Crown’s debt management objectives; determining a portfolio structure for currency, maturity and credit exposures; managing risk and undertaking transactions in a manner consistent with government policy and the NZDMO’s portfolio management policy and procedural manuals (see www.treasury.govt.nz/orgstructure/alm/nzdmo.asp)

4.At least 60 days before the beginning of each fiscal year, the PAA requires the CAG to prepare and submit to the Speaker of the HR a draft annual plan that describes the CAG’s proposed work programme for that year. After considering any comments from any committee of the HR, the CAG must present a completed annual plan to the Speaker before the beginning of each fiscal year (s. 36).

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Janssen, John (2001), New Zealand’s Fiscal Policy Framework: Experience and Evolution, The Treasury, Wellington, www.treasury.govt.nz/workingpapers/2001/01-25.asp.

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ISSN 1608-7143

OECD Journal on Budgeting – Volume 4 – No. 3 © OECD 2004

Four Nordic Countries*

*This study has benefited from comments from national authorities, including Hans Christian Holdt (Ministry of Finance, Denmark), Yvan Pederson (National Audit Office, Denmark), Pia Lahti and Timo Lehtinen (National Audit Office, Finland), Tuomas Pöysti (Ministry of Finance, Finland), Alpo Rivinoja (Finance Committee of Parliament, Finland), Espen Aasen and Anniken Hoelsaeter (Ministry of Finance, Norway), Tora Jarlsby (National Audit Office, Norway), Martin Engman (National Audit Office, Sweden), Ake Hjalmarsson (Ministry of Finance, Sweden) and Richard Murray (Statskontoret, Sweden), as well as OECD colleagues including Alexandra Bibbee, Jón Blöndal, Per Mathis Kongsrud and Martin Jorgensen.