Auditor-General's report, Introducing our work about procurement

The Auditor-General’s report Introducing our work about procurement was presented to the House of Representatives today.

In our Annual plan 2018/19, we indicated that procurement is our theme for 2018/19, with work on this theme continuing over the following two years. This report explains why we are interested in procurement and sets out the work that we plan to carry out. It summarises the risks, challenges, and opportunities for improving procurement practice in the public sector.

The way that we approach this work is intended to reinforce the message that procurement is more than just “buying something”. It involves all the processes involved in public organisations acquiring and subsequently managing goods and services from a supplier. Procurement begins with a public organisation determining what goods and services it needs to achieve its goals, planning for the purchase, the purchase process itself, and any monitoring to ensure that the contract has been carried out and has achieved what it was meant to.

Our report draws together observations from audit work and conversations with people involved with public sector procurement. As our procurement work programme progresses, we will continue these conversations, and welcome continuing input from stakeholders. We will take our concerns, and what we learn about good practice to these audiences, as well as publishing our work and ideas in a range of media.

Through our work, we want to help improve how the public sector does procurement, and how it ensures that New Zealanders are getting the benefits from public spending that they expect and need. This will lead to stronger public accountability for the use of public funds and improved awareness about the implications of poor procurement.

A two-pager on procurement and an epub of the report are also available.

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