I am pleased to introduce to you the 2009 update to the New Zealand equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZ IFRS) model financial statements for a council-controlled organisation (CCO).

Audit New Zealand's model financial statements highlight our profession's latest thinking in terms of meeting financial reporting and legislative requirements, and providing essential financial statement information.

Focus

The model financial statements have been updated to reflect current good practice and learnings from our review, and audit, of the first NZ IFRS financial statements. The updates to the model are explained on pages 6 and 7.

The model financial statements have been prepared especially to help guide a CCO in preparing NZ IFRS compliant financial statements. The financial statements included in this model are only part of what is required to be included in a CCO's annual report. The other legislative requirements for a CCO's annual report are set out in sections 67 to 69 of the Local Government Act 2002.

Future updates

We will continue to update the model financial statements to reflect changes in NZ IFRS and evolving good practice in application of NZ IFRS to the CCO sector.

We would welcome any feedback on the application of this model in the CCO sector or any other comments that may assist in future updates of the model financial statements. If you have any feedback or comments on these model financial statements please pass these to your Audit New Zealand Manager or Director.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Audit New Zealand staff who have contributed to these model financial statements, particularly Brett Story, Stephen Lewis, and Robert Cox of our Technical Team.

Stephen Walker
Executive Director
May 2009