Dear Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment,

Clause 14F(a)(i) of the New Zealand Building Act 2004 states the following:
14F Responsibilities of building consent authority
A building consent authority is responsible for—
(a) checking, in accordance with the requirements of this Act for each type of building consent, to ensure that—
(i) an application for a building consent complies with the building code:

Clause 336 of the New Zealand Building Act (2004) states the following:
366 Offence to impersonate building consent authority or regional authority, etc
(1) A person commits an offence if the person impersonates—
(a) a building consent authority or regional authority; or
(b) an office r or employee of a building consent authority or regional authority.

The Crimes Act 1961 defines a bribe as:
bribe means any money, valuable consideration, office, or employment, or any benefit, whether direct or indirect

And Clause 105 of the Crimes Act states the following:
105 Corruption and bribery of official
(1) Every official is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who, whether within New Zealand or elsewhere, corruptly accepts or obtains, or agrees or offers to accept or attempts to obtain, any bribe for himself or herself or any other person in respect of any act done or omitted, or to be done or omitted, by him or her in his or her official capacity.

Please provide the Clause of the New Zealand Building Act which allows a building consent authority to arrange to have a design reviewed by a person or organisation of their choosing external to their respective Council (e.g. a private company or individual), with the cost of any such review to be borne by the building consent applicant?

Yours faithfully,

Simon Johnson

Dear *OIA,

Your letter acknowledging my question ( DOIA 1516-1116) omits my introduction, which outlines various legal requirements in the Building Act and Crimes Act. Please include these in your acknowledgement so that there is no error in your response and the question is answered in full.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Johnson

Dear BRM Official Correspondence,

This response has truncated my original question. I replied to MBIE instructing not to do this, but it has still been done. Please answer the full question, and do not truncate any of my original question in your response.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Johnson