The 2020 Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) Annual Report was provided to members at the Annual General Meeting on 23rd November. TINZ is very proud of its year of progress as reflected in this report. The mahi was achieved through a combination of expert volunteer inputs, paid staff and good governance.

TINZ has maintained its momentum in the face of the global pandemic challenge. It has learnt new things and been able to not only stay connected but also progress TINZ’s work in a positive way.

Three new Directors were elected to the TINZ Board by members, following online voting and voting at the AGM venues.

The project for tracking the commitments made during the 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit is being concluded with a final report "From Practice to Impact" published in December 2020.

Institute of Management Consultants New Zealand is proud to collaborate with Transparency International New Zealand to fight corruption. Both organisations are part of global networks that support fair and ethical behaviour.

TINZ and the Honest Bunch Foundation formally acknowledged entering into a strategic partnership at the TINZ AGM. Both organisations have common interests in safer communities, zero tolerance to violations of integrity and care about the ability to safely collect and share information.

The TINZ 2020 AGM in November was the last official act of Suzanne Snively as Chair of Transparency New Zealand. For ten years she has been the driving force behind TINZ during which time the influence of our organization has expanded dramatically.

TINZ celebrated another successful year at its recent Annual General Meeting that was linked between venues in Auckland and at Parliament.  The TINZ 2020 Annual Report outlines significant progress across a range of key initiatives and activities.

Today, 9 December 2020 is International Anti-Corruption Day, with the theme ‘Recover with Integrity’. The response to the COVID-19 virus is creating new opportunities to exploit weak oversight and inadequate transparency, diverting funds away from people in their hour of greatest need.

Just as we are using the COVID app and wearing masks, we also need to protect our homes, incomes, businesses and our open lifestyle from attacks by malevolent fraudsters.

In October 2020, Transparency International EU published a report finding that of the 39 biggest banks in Europe, 31 declared profits in low or zero-tax jurisdictions. Of these, 29 banks had no people working in the country where large portions of their profits were declared.

Transparency International New Zealand has three areas of major concern about New Zealand government procurement: poor quality of data on the Government Electronic Tendering System (GETS),  poor and incomplete publication of emergency procurements undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, and lack of secondary procurement data.