Invercargill Mayor To Address Auditor-General Over Huge Fee Increases

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has warned Audit New Zealand director Chris Genet that he will be writing to the Auditor-General about the rising costs of fees that its council faces.

Chris was present at the council’s Risk and Assurance Committee meeting this morning,(Tuesday 21st November) to answer questions from councillors about the audit process.

Mayor Clark told Chris it worried him that the fees for next year had not been yet outlined from Audit NZ, and this concern had also been shared by Local Government New Zealand.

The Auditor-General and his designated private sector auditors advised in August of average fee increases of 43 percent or more, and Mayor Clark said some councils faced up to 200% increases.

“The fees are escalating too quickly.”

Prior to the election, councils called for the Minister for Local Government to intervene, and at its AGM in August, LGNZ agreed to call on central government to take action to reduce council audit fees, by revising the revisiting the scope and requirements of reporting and auditing.

At the time the Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty emphasised the Office of the Auditor-General was independent of the Government, and therefore shouldn’t intervene.

Parliament has oversight of the Auditor-General and Audit NZ, and a committee scrutinises and reviews their performance.

The ICC received its draft management letter from Audit NZ this morning, and the responses will come back to the council in the New Year.