Audit finds NPDC’s contractor system is still significantly flawed. It just keeps getting worse.
The Alliance didn't cover the story below back in June as we were very concerned about issues mentioned and we thought we needed to do something about this situation. (Along with a few other concerns we have).
We raised our concerns officially with a Government Agency last month. We will let you know how this progresses, but these things do take time.
So there was the GST, then assumptions being incorrect so the average rates increase is 12.8% instead of 9.9%.
Then there is the history from the Deloitte's auditor which has been going on since 2022.
Extract’s from the Daily News Article last month:
“An internal investigation into how the New Plymouth District Council has improved the way it manages its contractors three years on from a scathing audit report, has found significant shortcomings still exist in the organisation.”
“A “deep dive” report went before council’s finance, audit and risk committee on Tuesday (17th June) to provide an oversight on what had been achieved since the Deloitte commissioned report in 2022.”
“The initial 2022 report by Deloitte's David Seath gave council the lowest rating an auditor could give.
Examples (of issues) included :
- Contractors operating without up-to-date agreements,
- Payments were made to them outside of agreed terms.
- Contractors being re-engaged without performance reviews or justification
- Purchase orders were raised after services were delivered, bypassing financial controls;
- While payments were also made without supporting documentation or manager sign-off”
Three years on under the new CEO Gareth Green – “while council had attempted to introduce a raft of changes”, (it was found)
- Oversight remained “inconsistent” which exposed council to governance risks,
- Enforcement “remains weak”
- While “deviations from standard procedures may persist unchecked”
- Found performance evaluations lacked consistency and procedural oversight remained weak.
2022 also found
- “Critical oversights” in the way conflicts of interest with contractors had left council exposed to “real or perceived bias” in selection.
- Invoice validation methods needed strengthening before being signed off and more regular audits were needed.”
A timeline, which stretches out to December, 2026, had also been drawn up with expectations around policy updates, staff training, monitoring and compliance checks, as well as tracking.
“Despite the significance of the internal deep dive, the Finance and Audit committee, which also included New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom, chairperson Amanda Clinton-Gohdes, councillors Tony Bedford, David Bublitz and Marie Pearce, did not debate its contents” at Tuesdays meeting.
The Alliance’s thoughts:
Did they not debate this on Tuesday 17 June as they didn’t want all the detail of the report publicly available ?
The top priority with this situation surely has to be to get standard accounting/business practices in place immediately – Not by December 2026.
- In the article “Purchase orders were raised after services were delivered, bypassing financial controls”
- If the current people in Management positions at the NPDC are not capable of implementing standard accounts practices immediately, then why are they in these positions, and on such large salaries ?
- It should not take 18 months to get a “purchase order to invoice match” system in place. Many large corporations in New Plymouth (and NZ) still use manual systems for this critical part of the payment process.
- In the real world a new manager in a new job would get these basic systems in place within a few months if they were needed.
- In a Junior Accounts Office job they – match purchase orders to invoices before management signs off for the payment to be made.
The NPDC can put all sorts of effort into getting things like the Waitara Walkway Extension or the Sports Hub underway – things we don’t want at this time – but they plan to take another 18 months to get their critical procedures and systems sorted out.
The priorities of this council are truly out of whack.
The full Daily News Story is here:
Posted: Fri 18 Jul 2025