Report of the Auditor-General

To the Readers of the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the year ended 30 June 2009

I have audited the financial statements of the Government of New Zealand for the year ended 30 June 2009, using my staff, resources and appointed auditors and their staff.

Unqualified Opinion

In our opinion, the financial statements of the Government of New Zealand on pages 27 to 166:

• comply with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand; and
• fairly reflect:
  • the Government of New Zealand's financial position as at 30 June 2009; and
  • the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date;

The audit was completed on 30 September 2009, and is the date at which our opinion is expressed.

The basis of our opinion is explained below. In addition, we outline the responsibilities of the Government and the Auditor, and explain our independence.

Basis of Opinion

We carried out the audit in accordance with the Auditor-General's Auditing Standards, which incorporate the New Zealand Auditing Standards.

We planned and performed the audit to obtain all the information and explanations we considered necessary in order to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements did not have material misstatements, whether caused by fraud or error.

Material misstatements are differences or omissions of amounts and disclosures that would affect a reader's overall understanding of the financial statements. If we had found material misstatements that were not corrected, we would have referred to them in our opinion.

The audit involved performing procedures to test the information presented in the financial statements. We assessed the results of those procedures in forming our opinion.

Audit procedures generally include:

• determining whether significant financial and management controls are working and can be relied on to produce complete and accurate data;
• verifying samples of transactions and account balances;
• performing analyses to identify anomalies in the reported data;
• reviewing significant estimates and judgements made;
• confirming year-end balances;
• determining whether accounting policies are appropriate and consistently applied; and
• determining whether all financial statement disclosures are adequate.

We did not examine every transaction, nor do we guarantee complete accuracy of the financial statements.

We evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation of information in the financial statements. We obtained all the information and explanations we required to support our opinion above.

Responsibilities of the Government and the Auditor

The Treasury is responsible for preparing financial statements for the Government in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice in New Zealand. Those financial statements must fairly reflect the financial position of the Government as at 30 June 2009. They must also fairly reflect the results of its operations and cash flows for the year ended on that date. The Minister of Finance is responsible for forming an opinion that those financial statements fairly reflect the financial position and operations of the Government for that year.The responsibilities of the Treasury and the Minister of Finance arise from the Public Finance Act 1989.

We are responsible for expressing an independent opinion on the financial statements and reporting that opinion to you. This responsibility arises from section 15 of the Public Audit Act 2001 and section 30 of the Public Finance Act 1989.

Independence

The Auditor-General and the Deputy Auditor-General, as Officers of Parliament, are constitutionally and operationally independent of the Government. Other than in exercising functions and powers under the Public Audit Act 2001 as the auditor of public entities, and in carrying out:

• a review of the Financial Statements of the Government for compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards; and
• a review of the processes, criteria, and rules used to determine the content of forecast financial statements under section 26Q of the Public Finance Act 1989,

the Auditor-General and the Deputy Auditor-General have no relationship with or interest in the Government.

Phillippa Smith
Deputy Controller and Auditor-General
Wellington
New Zealand