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Grant Thornton New Zealand’s latest survey of IA leaders demonstrates that while changes throughout the public sector continue to increase the pressure on services, systems, processes, people and budgets, they are leveraging every opportunity available to overcome these challenges.

Major public sector agencies have been instrumental in driving lasting benefit through strategic procurement and broader outcomes. Think hydro dams, railways and hospitals built by the previous generation. This approach has lifted the quality and resilience of public services, the capability of a range of suppliers and also set a precedent for addressing the burgeoning issue of infrastructure technical debt.

Our research into current internal audit (IA) environment throughout New Zealand’s public sector explores how leaders from a range of agencies are navigating the skills squeeze, budgetary bottlenecks, and their progress with IA innovation.

Today, cybersecurity has become a top concern for public sector leaders, as the number and sophistication of breaches continues to increase. If you want to strengthen your agency’s IT defences and understand your current state of cyber-preparedness, we recommend the following steps as part of a wider cyber security maturity assessment.

Government departments, fuelled by unprecedented levels of public funding, find themselves in a precarious balancing act. On one hand, they must spend proactively and efficiently to achieve policy outcomes and ensure public money is distributed to those who need it, and on the other, they must ensure the funding is disbursed appropriately and wastage is minimised.

Building consents: Councils shouldn’t be the last man standing between quality and progress

The new Waste Minimisation (Information Requirement) Regulations 2021 make it mandatory for waste management facilities to keep records about the waste they’re receiving and where it’s going. Signpost of the direction the Government is taking with waste management – something that will have an impact on not only every local council, but every Kiwi household as well.

Family Business Survey 2021