Kia ora D Watson
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act request. These are the last attachments in response to OIA 50.
In the interests of transparency, we release responses to Official Information Act requests every three months. We will publish this response with your personal details redacted on elections.nz.
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Ngā mihi
Electoral Commission | Te Kaitiaki Take Kōwhiri
PO Box 3220 | Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street | Wellington | vote.nz | elections.nz
-----Original Message-----
From: D Watson <[FYI request #27043 email]>
Sent: Tuesday, 23 July 2024 1:24 pm
To: OIA Enquiries <[email address]>
Subject: RE: OIA Response 4/4
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Dear OIA Enquiries,
Thanks I wasn't looking for reports to the board solely. I meant operational reporting that was used by the executive , as I understand it there are 4 executives that report into the CE and then heads of head department. According to the "General Election 2023: Independent review of counting errors" report published by the Controller Of the Auditor General "A month before the election, the structured approach to risk management ceased and a General Election Delivery Taskforce was set up". Do you have documentation used by this "task force" that was used to run the election - inform decision-making and manage the organisation at an appropriate level of governance level. I may have implied that I was seeking only the board level information, which you have supplied, but I was after more than that. If you do not have such i formation to hand I will conclude that there was no formal reporting or related information/artefacts produced during the actual election period.
Can you provide me with any reports that were conducted by consulting firms such as EY, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, Martin Jenkins and other local consultancies typically used by government agencies since 2020 that looked into or reviewed any aspect of the electoral commission's operations including audits of individual functions. I am trying to ascertain what was know prior to the election about risks and issues that would be faced and any advise that may or may not have been taken on board. Were any of the issues spotted by these consultancies or was such consultancy insufficient and ineffective or lacking good terms. For example 'staffing issues' were noted but was this raised by any independent party to the executive or head of departments and not acted on or have any such consultation driven change that will prevent issues in future. I would like to know how much each consultation cost.
As I mentioned in my last message, almost every document I received references further documentation or appendix that was not provided. I will collate a list of what I believe is informative or relevant and forward that to you. There is a lot to get through. I am hoping by putting together a list it will be clear what I am looking for (insight into how was the election run).
Please provide these in tranches if not all to hand, for example I expect that the consultant reports will ne readily available.
Yours sincerely,
D Watson
-----Original Message-----
Kia ora Mr Watson
My 15 July response included all existing governance reporting to the Board for the 2023 General Election. The period immediately before and after the election was devoted to operational delivery rather than high-level governance, so some of the types of reporting you received weren't produced during that period:
o Quarterly reports: Attachment A06 covers the immediate pre- and post-election period.
o Monthly reports: The 15 July letter explains that you have been provided with all existing monthly reports for the period in question.
The July 2023 monthly report was the last such report until January 2024.
o Risk updates: You’ve been provided with all risk reporting to the Board from July 2023 until 13 September 2023, the last Board meeting before the election. After the election this level of reporting to the Board was not necessary, and quarterly risk reporting to the Board didn’t resume until February 2024.
o Programme status reports: The reports provided are the complete set of general election Programme Status Reports that went to the Board. The last such report (attachment A33 in our response) went to the 13 September Board meeting, the last Board meeting held before the election. There were no further programme status reports after that date.
As mentioned on p.2 of the 15 July response, some appendices to attachment
A26 have been withheld for the reasons set out in the letter.
All the 33 attachments provided were produced by the Commission rather than by external consultants.
If you wish to clarify your request to obtain further documents, please specify which ones, and we will consider their release.
Ngâ mihi
Leigh Deuchars (she/ her) | Deputy Chief Executive Strategy, Governance and Development
Electoral Commission | Te Kaitiaki Take Kôwhiri | +64 4 495 0030
PO Box 3220 | 34-42 Manners Street | Wellington | | [1]vote.nz | [2]elections.nz
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