Audit Office gives 'Adverse opinion' to District Council proposed LTP

Veronica from Manakau

11 April, 2023

Audit Office: Assumptions of proposed amendments to Horowhenua District's 20 Year Long Term Plan "not reasonable or supportable"

"Credibility" questioned

Long Term Plan, "does not provide an effective basis for public participation"

Final verdict: "Adverse opinion"

Audit Office gives "adverse opinion" on information contained in Horowhenua District Council's 20 year Long Term Plan (LTP) Amendments Consultation document.

The report included in a copy of the draft LTP said:

"The consultation document does not provide an effective basis for public participation in the Council’s decisions about the proposed amendment to its 2021-41 LTP.

"This is because the assumptions underlying the information in the consultation document are not reasonable or supportable.

"The Council is assuming that it will retain ownership of three waters infrastructure assets and remain responsible for the service delivery of three waters services for the next 20 years.

"The Council has not amended its assumptions that underpin the information on three waters infrastructure assets in the consultation document.

"The assumptions are therefore not reasonable or supportable, which affects the credibility of the proposed LTP amendment.

We did not determine the effect of the reform on the proposed amendment, because it was impracticable for us to do so," said the report author on behalf of Audit New Zealand.

Three waters refers to water, stormwater and waste-water services which are expected to be managed by four new publicly owned entities from 1 July 2024, replacing the services managed by Council.

Legislation to establish the four new publicly owned entities - the Water Services Entities Act 2022 (the WSEA) was passed by Parliament on 14 December 2022.

Council's chief executive Monique Davidson is reported to have said, "The right thing is what do we think the cost of Three Waters would look like if we were to retain the responsibility of it."

That sounds more like wishful thinking. But perhaps the Council that adopted the proposed 20 year plan for Consultation despite the Audit Office findings and Council's chief executive Monique Davidson knows more than the rest of us what the political landscape is going to look like after the general election. Either way wishful thinking is probably not the best basis to be making 20 Year financial forecasts on.

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