Auditor-General's report published

Auditor-General's report published, Effectiveness of governance in the arts, culture, and heritage sector

The Auditor-General’s report, Effectiveness of governance in the arts, culture, and heritage sector, was presented to the House of Representatives today. The report can be viewed on our website: http://www.oag.govt.nz/2015/arts-governance

In this report, we look at the effectiveness of governance arrangements in six public entities in the arts, culture, and heritage sector. Governance arrangements in this sector play an important role in maintaining freedom of artistic expression and ensuring that the preservation of heritage is not unduly influenced by personal interests.

Overall, there is an effective level of governance in each of the six entities. The boards for these entities take their responsibilities seriously and have appropriate structures, policies, and practices to help their organisations achieve their strategic direction and fulfil their roles. They are strong advocates for their organisations and for the sector more generally.

However, more could be done to strengthen risk management. Many cultural assets are irreplaceable and susceptible to specific risks, such as earthquakes. Other cultural assets are intangible, such as traditional knowledge, language, performing arts, and oral history. Understanding and mitigating potential risks to these assets is critical. Boards could improve their understanding of risk and develop better processes for identifying and managing risks.

We have also prepared a self-assessment framework, which can be found on our website alongside the report. We encourage other entities in the sector to use this framework to assess the performance of their own governance arrangements.

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