Transparency International New Zealand is involved in many activities that promote our values of transparency and integrity throughout New Zealand. Here are some of our activities during April and May.
- We submitted and gave media comments on the Fast track approvals bill expressing our concerns about non-democratic processes being set up in the bill. We will speak to the Health Select Committee in June
- We submitted on the statutory review of the 2023 election, including asking about the impact of administrative errors and technical system failure, and that nothing could be said about political party donations since the data had not yet been released
- We spoke out about the weaknesses of the voluntary draft code of lobbying conduct and gave media interviews
- The CEO gave a lunchbox presentation for the Institute of Internal Auditors of NZ
- We submitted on a Ministry of Justice consultation on OIA exclusion clauses in legislation
- We submitted to the OECD ahead of the peer OECD review evaluation of New Zealand’s performance against the Convention against bribery of foreign officials. We also supported OECD officials with suggestions of civil society and other potential stakeholders, and three TINZ advocates attended the OECD consultations in Auckland and Wellington
- We had our first ever stall at the AML Summit Conference, Kerry Grass, Adam Hunt and Julie Haggie attended
- CEO Julie Haggie and Deputy Chair Debbie Gee completed our proposal to Transparency International for grant funding to support our Pacific facing work
- We ran a very successful Public Sector Leaders Integrity Forum on procurement – organised by Anne Gilbert and Chaired by Director Tod Cooper
- Simon Chapple has been working steadily on research looking into New Zealand’s Anti-Corruption Mechanisms – this forms the first part of our National Integrity System Assessment programme.
- We have started planning for the visit of Francois Valerian, chair of the Global Movement of Transparency International – in late August
- TINZ is part of the Online Safety Coalition, and that group has been meeting to discuss joint advocacy
- We completed the documentation for our accreditation review, and so far have had very good feedback
- The first meeting of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians against Corruption (New Zealand chapter) was held on 1 May. TINZ is the Secretariat for that group
- New and current members are submitting articles to Transparency Times, which is well curated by Steve Snively, our newsletter editor
- We are planning for our attendance at the International Anti Corruption Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania in mid June. The Chair and CEO will attend, as will Sir Anand and Lady Satyanand because Sir Anand sits on the IACC Council
- We attended targeted consultation organised with Stats NZ, on its proposed changes to how it collects whole of population data in future
- Internally there have been regular meetings of the Board, Audit & Risk Committee, Personnel Committee and the Rules Review Working Group. And our Finance Officer Liat Gush has been working on our 2024-25 budget
