Rest Assured - May 2002

The Local Government Bill - it may not rule yet, but it is certainly dominating Councillors, Chief Executives and Senior Managers’ thinking. When will it be reported back to the House? Will it be passed before the election? These are the usual questions posed during our many discussions with the sector. While many of the issues in the Bill are still being robustly debated – Part 5, for example – many councils appear anxious to start work now on the expected regime. We are fielding a number of calls on preparing strategies and LTCCPs. The Bill also promotes the concept of Triple Bottom Line Reporting or, as it is increasingly known, Sustainable Development Reporting. In this edition, our specialist Leanne Holdsworth looks at the Bill through an SDR lens. As well as the Local Government Bill, councils also now have the Rating Act to wrestle with. In the midst of these challenges, comes the annual "audit round". This year sees the introduction of the new Financial Reporting Standard 3: Accounting for Property, Plant & Equipment. FRS-3 has been much debated and was the core subject of our well-attended accounting seminars last year. The focus now is implementation. This issue has two articles on assets not generally recognised under SSAP 28 but which must be recognised for 2002 under FRS-3 – heritage assets and land under roads. The question is what value to put on these? Brian Smith outlines the broad view on heritage assets, augmented by a think piece on our website www.auditnz.govt.nz,while John Dunckley of DTZ New Zealand comments on valuing land under roads. All in all, 2002 looks like being a challenging year for councils and auditors alike!

auditnz-lg-2002-05.pdf — PDF document, 356Kb