The Treasury plays an important leadership role in the state sector and publishes a range of guidance for departments and other entities as well as information on state sector performance.
What is the State Sector?
The state sector is the broad range of organisations that serve as instruments of the Crown in respect of the Government of New Zealand.
These organisations include:
- Public Service departments;
- Crown entities;
- State-owned enterprises.
For purposes of the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand, the Government reporting entities comprises those organisations specified in Part 3 of the Public Finance Act 1989. For the latest list of entities, see Government Reporting Entity as at 30 June 2017 in the financial statements.
Review of Expenditure on Policy Advice
The final report of the Review of Expenditure on Policy Advice, which was chaired by Dr Graham Scott, was provided to the Minister of Finance, Minister of State Services and the Minister for Regulatory Reform in December 2010 and released on 28 April 2011. The Government established the externally-led review in August 2010. The review was asked to provide advice on the cost and quality of policy advice, as well as its alignment with the Government’s priorities.
Treasury's Role in the State Sector
Improved state sector performance is one of the three over-arching outcomes that drives the Treasury’s work programme. The other two outcome are:
The Treasury’s role in this area is to ensure State services are delivered in the most efficient and effective way, both to meet the Government’s objectives and to generate the maximum possible benefit for taxpayers' money for a given level of expenditure.
State Sector Performance and Central Agency Role
The Treasury’s interest in improving state sector performance arises from its combined roles as an economic and financial advisor to the Government, as well as one of three central agencies which includes:
The shared central agency approach to state sector performance allows greater collective leverage on performance issues.
State Sector Projects and Programmes
The Treasury leads work or collaborates on a number of cross-departmental projects and programmes, including:
Whole-of-Government Financial Reporting
The Treasury is responsible for establishing and maintaining a system of controls to ensure that government transactions are within statutory authority, and that all use of public finance resources are properly recorded. The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand are prepared by the Treasury in accordance with the Public Sector Finance Act 1989.
Budget Process
The Treasury helps in the preparation of the Government's annual Budget by advising the Minister of Finance on Budget policy; preparing macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts; compiling and processing budget initiative proposals from Vote Ministers; and preparing budget documents such as the Estimates, the budget Economic and Fiscal Update and the Fiscal Strategy Report. For more information, see the Budget Process section of the Budgets menu on this web site.
State Sector Guidance and Instructions
The Treasury publishes a range of guidance for state sector entities on financial management, the Budget, financial reporting, financial powers, appropriations and other aspects of New Zealand’s public financial management system.
- Guidance
- Publication Search - Guidance