Local government

A list of our content (including reports, articles, blog posts, and published letters) about the local government sector (city, district, and unitary councils, and council-controlled organisations).
Local Authority Governance of Subsidiary Entities

March 2001: This report has a broad scope and looks at the challenges, risks and lessons for local government in current and emerging governance issues. It also includes case studies on three governance structures established to address particular needs – Watercare Services Limited, Infrastructure Auckland and the Canterbury landfill joint venture project...

Reviewing a Long-term Financial Strategy and Funding Policy — Experiences of the Early Nine

October 2000: This report looks at the experience of "the early nine" local authorities in undertaking the first three-yearly review of their Long-term Financial Strategy and Funding Policy. Our intention in examining their experience was to share it, along with our suggestions and advice, with the majority of local authorities that are reviewing their Long-term Financial Strategy and Funding Policy now...

Auditing a Long-term Financial Strategy - Opotiki District Council Pilot Project

September 2000: During 1998, Opotiki District Council asked us for assurance about the quality of its Long-term Financial Strategy (LTFS). The Council wanted to improve the reliability of its forecasting. Improving reliability is significantly dependent on the quality and robustness of the underlying assumptions used to develop models and scenarios in the LTFS...

Contracting out local authority regulatory functions

November 1999: In July 1998 the Queenstown Lakes District Council became one of the first local authorities to contract out most of its regulatory functions to a private contractor. The first part of this report is a good practice guide. The second part looks at Queenstown's experience...

Auckland City Council: Britomart Project

January 1999: The Britomart project has been, and continues to be, controversial - the nature, scale, cost and risks associated with the development are all the subject of considerable debate. In September 1997, the Audit Office and the Council agreed that the Audit Office would conduct a review of the project...

Public consultation and decision-making in local government

December 1998: Some local authorities are having trouble interpreting and applying the legal requirements concerning consultation, and there may be different expectations and understandings of what consultation requires. (Consultation under the Resource Management Act 1991 and consultation with iwi are not covered because they have been comprehensively addressed by other agencies.)...

Papakura District Council: Water and wastewater franchise

April 1998: Franchise agreements can be a viable option for the delivery of local authority services. However, there are inherent risks. Our audit has identified a number of these risks and we hope that other authorities will benefit from a greater awareness of the processes which need to be followed...