Following the failure, in the most part, of the National Action Plan 4 to deliver co-designed commitments for greater transparency, citizen participation and public accountability, the Government had to consider whether to stay in OGP. We were pleased that Minister Collins convinced Cabinet to stay in the Partnership.
This decision is contingent on a narrowing of the scope of the NAP5, now focusing closely on the Public Sector Commission’s Integrity Action Plan, in four areas of that plan:
- Resetting expected standards and improving agency practice;
- Strengthening conflict of interest management within the public sector;
- Improving how complaints are handled; and
- Advancing our commitments to reduce corruption and fraud
The format of engagement with civil society has also been changed, with no multi-stakeholder forum and just two meetings with civil society and government agencies.
It’s not OGP as we know it, but then our previous OGP engagement was a resource-drain on civil society groups, and ultimately combative and ineffective. TINZ representatives Julie Haggie and Derek Gill have attended OGP online information sessions and proposed initiatives that could stretch targets, e.g. in procurement and revolving door concerns. Since there is no additional financial resource being applied to any of the commitments this will likely constrain ambitious initiatives.
The goal of the PSC is to submit a new National Action Plan to OGP before 31 December 2025. You can follow the progress at: https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/system/open-government-partnership/plans-and-resources/new-zealands-fifth-national-action-plan
