Appointments — Deputy Controller and Auditor-General

on behalf of the Leader of the House: I move, That, pursuant to section 11(2) and clause 2 of Schedule 3 of the Public Audit Act 2001, the House recommend to the Governor-General that Greg Mark Schollum of Wellington be appointed as the Deputy Controller and Auditor-General for a term not exceeding 5 years with effect from 28 September 2015. This motion recommends Mr Greg Schollum replace Phillippa Smith as the Deputy Controller and Auditor-General, a role she has held since 2005. After 10 years she has decided not to seek reappointment. I would like to place on record our thanks for her service in this role.

The work of the Deputy Controller and Auditor-General cannot be understated in its importance. Indeed, work undertaken by the office must give Parliament, public entities, and the public independent assurance that some 4,000 public entities are operating and accounting for their performance in keeping with Parliament’s intentions. Mr Schollum is well-qualified for this appointment, having joined the Office of the Auditor-General in September 2004.

He has held responsibility for the accounting and auditing policy group, which encompasses auditor appointments, quality assurance, auditing policy, and accounting policy across all sectors within the Auditor-General’s audit mandate. Mr Schollum was a member of the Financial Reporting Standards Board of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants for 8 years and has served on numerous working groups and committees of the institute. Since 1 July 2011 he has served on the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board.

He is a fellow of the institute and gained his business management studies qualification from the University of Waikato. Before being in the Office of the Auditor-General, Mr Schollum was the chief financial officer for the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and prior to that an audit director with Audit New Zealand. I want to thank the Officers of Parliament Committee for its work, and I wish Mr Schollum all the best for his term as Deputy Controller and Auditor-General.

Again, I would like to place on record the support of the Labour Party for this appointment, and also I want to make a few brief comments about Phillippa Smith before I sit down. Unlike the appointment we debated previously, there was not quite the even balance and strength, other than Mr Schollum, in the applicants for this appointment. It is a little bit hard to tell why—whether the position is not that attractive or, as may be the case, people saw that Mr Schollum was an applicant and thought as a result of that, because he had the history and the background, he was almost certain to be appointed. If that is the case, that is fine.

What became clear to the committee was that the new Deputy Auditor-General will not be a pushover for anyone. He is someone who stands up for what he believes in—something that, on occasions, has not always made him popular inside and outside the office. He has the ability, which I think is necessary for someone in this sort of position, to put on the black hat, to take a contrary point of view, and to debate issues. I think that is valuable, because in an office like that of the Auditor-General, having groupthink is something that is not useful. It is better to have views tested. I am sure Mr Schollum will be able to do that.

I do want to acknowledge the role that Phillippa Smith has played in the Public Service. I think I first came across her when she worked in the Audit Office previously, before she went to the State Services Commission. She is a public servant of incredible integrity and intelligence. I was Minister of State Services during the majority of the time she was at the State Services Commission. She was fearless in her legal advice and warnings, both verbally and occasionally in writing, to Ministers of the day. I think that was something that I found particularly valuable and, on occasions, chilling. That, again, was something important.

I am not sure if we are meant to say this, but I would have thought that Phillippa Smith is not yet at the point where it is appropriate for her skills to be lost to the State sector generally. She is, I think, someone whom Governments should look to in the future for roles that are temporary or part-time because her abilities are something that is so valuable that it is vital that they are retained and used in order to keep working on the integrity of the Public Service and the State sector generally. If she is going into part-time retirement, I wish her well. Thank you.

On behalf of the Green Party, I rise to support the Government motion, to congratulate Mr Schollum on his appointment, and also to thank Phillippa Smith for her contribution. I echo the remarks that Trevor Mallard has just made. The Office of the Auditor-General is an incredibly important one for our democracy and for our work in this Parliament. When I consider the work, for example, that we all undertake on select committees, the advice that we have from the Office of the Auditor-General is extraordinarily important and valuable in forming the scrutiny that we are able to place the institutions of Government under. So we could not perform our role on select committees if we did not have that support from the Office of the Auditor-General.

That means, of course, that the office has a very heavy workload indeed, and that, I think, has made it from time to time difficult for it to strike the best balance between that programme of regular work and the functions that it also has to conduct investigations from time to time into, for example, probity in Government departments. Certainly, our party has often called on the Auditor-General to conduct such investigations when we have encountered conflicts of interest, for example, or other situations where the rules do not appear to have been followed. Sometimes the Office of the Auditor-General has been in a position to respond to those requests; sometimes it has not. But our point, I think, would be that it ought not require complaints from members of Parliament to trigger such investigations. One of the developments that, certainly, our party would like to see in the future is a more proactive stance from the Office of the Auditor-General, and maybe this appointment will create the catalyst for that to occur so that there is greater horizon-scanning for the issues that arise from time to time that could require the skills and expertise of the Auditor-General’s office to investigate.

So a more proactive stance towards investigation without needing complaints from members of Parliament or members of the public is what we would like to see. In conclusion, congratulations again to Mr Schollum, and we hope that his appointment and his tenure in the office will be very successful.

Motion agreed to.

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