To build and maintain public trust and confidence, public organisations need to act with integrity in the interests of all New Zealanders. It takes only a few issues to significantly affect trust and confidence in the entire public sector. Trust, once lost, can take a long time to rebuild.
Although New Zealand continues to score well in terms of the public's perception of public service integrity, both the OECD and Transparency International New Zealand have recently drawn attention to the dangers of complacency.
In September 2025 the Office of the Auditor-General looked at how the Public Service Commission promotes integrity in the public service; whether the Codes of Conduct, guidance, and standards it issues are relevant, current, and easy to find and understand; and what the Commission does to ensure that public servants know about and use these documents. See Promoting integrity in the public service.
From the report:
“What the OAG found
- The Commission carries out a range of activities to promote integrity in the public service, but its work could be more proactive. The Commission recognises this and has made or is planning useful improvements – for example, there is now a public service integrity champions network, and the Commissioner has asked organisations to prepare action plans to address findings from the recent public service census.
- The Commission has prepared an integrity action plan and intends to start work on an integrity strategy. The OAG encourages the Commission to ensure that the strategy reflects the key risks and vulnerabilities the public service faces and to consider how it will influence the parts of the wider public service it has less direct contact with.
- The Commission also collects a range of data about integrity in the public service, but it could make better use of this and other sources of data to know what is working well and what is not. This will help the Commission to better target its work and report more meaningfully to the public.
The OAG recommends that Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission:
- prepare a strategy for its integrity work, informed by:
- a better understanding of the vulnerabilities and risks the public service faces, including risks specific to individual organisations or sectors;
- consideration of the most effective ways of addressing those vulnerabilities and risks; and
- consideration of how it can best reach those parts of the public service and public organisations that it works less directly with;
- update its main Code of Conduct as soon as practicable;
- take a more systematic approach to data collection and analysis that includes:
- making better use of the data it holds to identify integrity themes and risks in the public service and in individual organisations; and
- obtaining information from public organisations about integrity breaches that have occurred and their progress implementing model standards and guidance; and
- develop improved measures and indicators for the integrity performance of the public service and report this information publicly on a regular basis.”
