26632 (2026). Hon Julie Anne Genter to the Minister of Transport

26632 (2026). Hon Julie Anne Genter to the Minister of Transport: What specific measures, if any, has the New Zealand Transport Agency implemented in the last 12 months to strengthen its infrastructure alliance contracts against financial mismanagement, and how is the effectiveness of these measures being independently audited, if at all?

Hon Chris Bishop: NZTA manages the finances and any potential conflicts with clearly documented processes supported internally (within Alliances) and externally (by NZTA and independent auditors). Within Alliances, this includes defined commercial frameworks for assessing cost eligibility, project-level payment claim reviews, independent external Alliance audit processes, and structured governance arrangements to review, challenge, and escalate cost issues. Any identified instances of potentially fraudulent activity trigger a review of the controls in place to ensure that they are as up to date and robust as possible. In the last 12 months, NZTA has implemented a number of additional measures to further improve control and transparency, including: • Introduction of a pre-payment review of monthly claims, to improve coding discipline, documentation, and auditability. • Reinforcement of expectations on procurement discipline, approvals, record keeping, and audit readiness. • Using defined processes to proactively and routinely identify conflicts of interest. • Ensuring segregation of duties for all processes relating to vendor identification, selection, onboarding, and payment. • Strengthening of documentation requirements for subcontractor evaluation and selection and third-party integrity due diligence. NZTA is currently finalising its internal audit plan for 2026/27 which is likely to include an audit of the Alliance contract control environment.