The Office’s Annual plan 2020/21 was presented to the House of Representatives today.

Our purpose is improving trust and promoting value in the public sector. Ensuring trust and confidence in the public sector has never been more critical than now, as New Zealand responds to the Covid-19 pandemic, with much of this response being led by the public sector.

The annual plan sets out the work that we intend to carry out in 2020/21 and the work that we are considering for the following two years. It is an ambitious plan, but it contains work that we believe will be relevant to Parliament, the public, and the public sector.

Our Office has a range of functions that help Parliament and the public hold public organisations to account for their use of public money, including annual audits, the Controller function, performance audits, and inquiries.

We intend to use all our core functions to inform our work and, in particular, our assessment of the Covid-19 response and recovery effort. This work is already underway, including monthly reporting on government Covid-19 spend, our review of personal protective equipment (PPE), and audit work on the wages subsidy schemes.

While Covid-19 matters will be an important focus of our work, other key work programmes will also continue. These include:

· strengthening integrity systems in the public sector;

· assessing how well the public sector is delivering on outcomes for New Zealanders;

· developing further good practice guidance;

· progressing our multi-year programmes on procurement, public accountability, and well-being; and

· our regular work and reporting on sector performance, Controller activities, audit follow-up, and supporting audit and risk committees.

Although we have a planned programme of work, we will regularly review our proposed work so that it remains relevant and responsive. This is particularly important given the dynamic and uncertain operating environment.

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