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).
Management of the West Coast Economic Development Funding Package

May 2006: In May 2000, a once-only payment of $120 million was made to help the West Coast region’s economy adjust to the Government’s policies to end the logging of indigenous forest. Of this funding package, $92 million was placed with the West Coast Development Trust, and the remaining $28 million was divided equally between the 4 West Coast local authorities. This report looks at how these 5 entities have managed the use of the funding package...

Management of heritage collections in local museums and art galleries

April 2006: This report provides museum staff with an independent assessment of collection management policies and practices against recognised principles of sound collection management, illustrates good practice, and suggests ways for museums and art galleries to work more effectively as individual institutions and collectively as a sector...

Local Authorities Working Together

May 2004: Working together can be a practical and cost-effective way for local authorities to share experience and resources, tackle common tasks, or take advantage of economies of scale. Working together can bring significant benefits that may not always be in the form of cost savings...

Managing the Relationship Between a Local Authority's Elected Members and its Chief Executive

July 2002: In this report, the key aspect that we examined was how elected members and their chief executive manage their relationship in the grey area between governance and administration. Difficulties in managing that part of the relationship appear to be a common cause of problems between councils and their chief executive. We suggest ways in which this situation might be improved...

Thames Coromandel District Council: Asset Registers and Other Matters

July 2001: This report contains our findings regarding a complaint made by the Concerned Citizens of the Coromandel Peninsula about certain actions of the Thames Coromandel District Council. Although the complaint raised over 50 issues, our report addresses only those issues that we considered to be most significant...

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...