Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill Submission

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND ENVIRONMENT SELECT COMMITTEE SUBMISSION – JULY 20123.15 Importantly, any member of the public can ask for information held by a council at anytime. Under the LocalGovernment Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, councils must provide any information that isrequested, unless one of the withholding grounds under that Act applies, e.g. withholding information to protecta person's safety or privacy. Access to official information helps ensure public scrutiny of councils' actions canoccur.External Scrutiny3.16 External agencies impose further checks and balances on councils' use of power. Councils, like many otherpublic bodies, can be investigated by the Ombudsmen. Under the Ombudsmen Act 1975, investigations canlook at any council decision, recommendation and action or omission that affects any person. TheOmbudsmen's findings will be reported to the council concerned, and sent directly to the council's Mayor orChairperson. The Ombudsmen can require a council to make a summary of the report available to the public.3.17 The Office of the Auditor-General is another agency that can scrutinise councils. Under the Public Audit Act2001, the Auditor-General can enquire into any matter concerning a council's use of its resources, either onrequest or at the Auditor-General's own initiative. The Auditor-General can also, at anytime, examine whether acouncil is carrying out its activities effectively and efficiently, complying with its statutory obligations, enablingwaste to occur, or lacking in probity or financial prudence. A report by the Auditor-General must be tabled bythe relevant council at a public meeting to ensure members of the public have access to it.Democracy3.18 Ultimately, all these tools to ensure accountability come to fruition when electors vote for the people who willrepresent them as councillors. The mechanisms outlined above mean that electors can be well informed aboutcouncils' performance. To supplement this, councils' chief executives must publish pre-election reports in therun up to a local election. A pre-election report summarises a council's performance over the last three years,noting, in particular if the council has kept to its limits on rates increases and borrowing, and briefs electors onthe major projects coming up in the next three years.4 Facts and Statistical Data4.1 Appendix Three of this submission is a report from NZIER entitled ―Is Local Government Fiscally Irresponsible –NZIER July 2012.” This report clarifies statistical and data issues raised in the debate leading to the BetterLocal Government reform package.4.2 The text below is taken from the introduction to that report:“We find that while revenue and spending have increased, but these by themselves do not present a problem. The increases arecontained when compared against measures of wealth like property values and income measures like GDP.Local Government has an obligation to rate payers to make sure that spending is warranted and provides value for money. Given thatLocal Government is a community democracy process, while democracy is not fool proof, the rates and expenditure choices should beseen in that political-economy context.Capital spending is between 3% and 5% of total assets. This is consistent with the level of investment required for long lived assetbases. There is no clear evidence of excessive capital expenditure.Debt and debt servicing measures are at prudent levels. Debt to assets, a commonly used measure has risen only modestly and interestpayments are at a stated prudent level of incomes.