Theme: Information to support financial accountability (Commitments 4-6)

Commitment 4: Design and implement a National Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy 

Objective: 

Implement a national Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy that unites and coordinates government agencies’ work to counter fraud and corruption risks. This will strengthen the system’s ability to identify and combat fraud and corruption risks and enhance transparency and accountability. 

Ambition: 

To design and implement a national Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy that will support government efforts to address fraud and corruption risks. Phase One of the Strategy will focus on fraud and corruption that targets public funds and resources, helping tax dollars go to needed public services and projects. Implementation of the strategy will improve the ability to safeguard public funds, while increasing the public’s trust and confidence in government as a responsible steward of public resources. 

The initial focus of this commitment will be on strengthening the capability of the public sector. Future development of the strategy may include business and the private sector. 

Status Quo: 

Despite its reputation for a high integrity Public Service, New Zealand is not immune to the increasing risks of fraud and corruption being faced in many parts of the world. Contributing factors include the rise of the digital economy, fragmented regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions, and trading with countries ranked as having higher levels of corruption. Government procurement has a relatively low level of transparency and emergency public spending has increased dramatically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

New Zealand Police estimate between $700m and $1.4bn in government funds is lost to fraud every year.  Research commissioned by the Serious Fraud Office estimates that, taking into account loss due to error, between $5bn and $10bn is lost due to fraud and error every year. These estimates do not include losses attributable to corruption. At a system level, a lack of information about the true extent of fraud and corruption, overlapping operational mandates, and different priorities of agencies involved can present obstacles to government working in a coordinated and consistent way to address fraud and corruption risks. New Zealand citizens quite rightly expect government agencies to act as responsible stewards when managing public funds. 

Te Tiriti O Waitangi: 

Implementing a national Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy to address fraud and corruption risks may deliver positive benefits to Māori as both citizens and iwi, to the extent that Māori are over-represented in socio-economic indicators for need, use of public services and experience of inequality. Acts of fraud and corruption often target government funds and resources, reducing the available funds for quality public services, diverting aid away from those most in need, deepening inequality, and eroding trust in government. 

Lead Agency: 

The Serious Fraud Office 

Commitment 5: Increase transparency of beneficial ownership of companies and limited partnerships 

Objective: 

Increase the transparency of the beneficial ownership of New Zealand companies and limited partnerships by introducing legislation to make beneficial owners’ identifying information available on a public register.

Ambition: 

To establish a register of beneficial ownership of companies and limited partnerships to help people find accurate, up-to-date information about who they are doing business with. The register will hold biographical, contact, and corporate information about the beneficial owners of New Zealand companies and limited partnerships. Companies and limited partnerships will be required to inform the registrar who their beneficial owners are. Beneficial owners will be required to provide their information to the registrar. Beneficial owners will need to prove their identity when providing this information and will be issued with a unique identifier. Subject to safeguards, enforcement agencies will be able to access all register information while the general public will have access to high-level information (name, date of becoming a beneficial owner, and grounds for qualifying as a beneficial owner).  

Status Quo: 

Companies and limited partnerships are two of the most common “for profit” entities in New Zealand. These entities are only required to disclose information to the Companies Office about individuals who directly own, and who directly run, the entities. There is no legal obligation to disclose the individuals who ultimately own or control companies and limited partnerships (the “beneficial owners”). The current level of disclosure makes it difficult to determine, for instance, who is benefiting when public funds go to private entities, whether entities are paying the correct amount of tax, or if they may be involved in money-laundering or other forms of corruption.  

Te Tiriti O Waitangi:  

Increase the transparency of the beneficial ownership of New Zealand companies and limited may benefit Māori as both citizens and iwi, to the extent that the current lack of transparency around beneficial ownership of companies and limited partnerships can have an impact on Māori as citizens and iwi due to systemic inequality and disadvantage.  

Lead Agency: 

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment 

Milestones: 

These planned milestones are indicative only as they are contingent on the Parliamentary process and passage of legislation. 

Commitment 6: Improve Government Procurement Transparency 

Objective: 

Improving the transparency of government sourcing activity by making changes to the Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS) and by developing a digital data platform (or leverage existing platforms) to capture procurement information, in alignment with the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS). 

Aligning with OCDS will enable government to share better information with the marketplace and improve efficiency and competition. It will also enable better monitoring and data-driven decision making to improve performance. Greater transparency also supports feedback and engagement by business and citizens. 

Ambition: 

To design and develop a digital data platform (or leverage existing platforms) that will capture procurement information from agencies and join up GETS data, All-of-Government panel, and agency procurement data, in alignment with the Open Data Contracting Standard. Fully developing and implementing the digital data platform will take time beyond NAP4 but will significantly increase transparency by making procurement information available to agencies and the public via a suite of dashboards.  

Also, to make changes to GETS to improve compliance with government contract award publication requirements. The changes will improve collation of data and increase the transparency of government sourcing processes. 

Status Quo: 

Each year, the New Zealand Government spends $51.5 billion on the goods and services to support public services, infrastructure, economic growth, and the wellbeing of New Zealanders. How this money is spent not only determines consumer and national outcomes. It also affects the efficiency, fairness, and inclusivity of the public procurement system for its providers.  

Currently, transparency of government procurement is limited. Only a subset of government agencies must advertise contracts over $100,000 through GETS. While the quality of that information has improved, with contract award notices being published as open data on a quarterly basis since July 2019, there is room for improvement. Procurement data is currently difficult to combine due to the lack of integrated data systems to aggregate procurement data in real time. Collation of procurement data outside of GETS is largely dependent on manual data collections which is time consuming, places considerable administrative burden on both agencies and suppliers, and is subject to compliance issues.  

Te Tiriti O Waitangi:  

Open contracting makes government procurement fairer and more efficient. Improving transparency of government procurement has benefits to Māori as both citizens and iwi, as it enables data and insights to better inform key policies and initiatives relevant to Māori, such as the progressive procurement policy.   

Lead Agency: 

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment 

Milestones: