This report is our annual report on the audits of the local government sector conducted for 2004-05. Most of these audits were of regional and territorial local authorities and their subsidiary entities.
All regional and territorial local authorities reported under the full requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 (the 2002 Act) for the first time for the year ended 30 June 2005. This meant all councils reported actual performance against their first Long-Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP), adopted in either 2003 or 2004. This had a significant effect on their annual reporting responsibilities.
Purpose
The purposes of this report are to:
- tell Parliament and the local government sector about matters arising from carrying out our role as auditor of the sector;
- describe examples of our expectations of best practice on various matters of financial management and reporting, governance, and administration;
- describe our preparation for the audit of the 2006-16 LTCCP for adoption by 30 June 2006, and our findings to date; and
- provide a brief outline of our focus regarding local government issues for the coming year, and the findings from some performance audits undertaken during the year that affect local government.