TINZ’s response to the Justice Select Committee Inquiry into 2020 General Election. Anne Tolley and Avon Adams were the leads in the TINZ response.

A group of Ten civil society organisations with an interest in open government sent a letter to the Hon Chris Hipkins, Minister for the Public Service, seeking a meeting to discuss extending the period for co-creation of Open Government Partnership National Actio Plan, thereby enabling funding for the plan to be included in Budget 2022.

Transparency International New Zealand is working with South Pacific people, civil society leaders and communities through the development of the South Pacific Outreach Project.

Gill is looking forward to fully engaging as Transparency International New Zealand's Deputy Chair. TINZ has a significant role to play, she is thrilled to be part of it.

Collaboration between Transparency International New Zealand and Civic Leaders for Clean Transactions Integrity Fiji, comprises five key anti-corruption initiatives in the Pacific.

An article recently published by Mariam Mathew, Pacific Regional Advisor at Transparency International, highlights the unchanged perception of Pacific corruption in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index and efforts underway to improve.

The first-ever Pacific Islands Corruption Barometer is being conducted through Transparency International’s Indo-Pacific Partnership for Strong, Transparent, Responsive & Open Networks for Good Governance.

On 25 February the Public Service Administration and Transparency International New Zealand jointly hosted a whistleblowing webinar. The webinar is well worth watching. A recap and transcript are available as well.

Public comments are currently being accepted for development of New Zealand’s 4th OGP NAP. In addition to submitting comments, TINZ is working with nine other civil society groups to promote extending the consultation period and building a budget around a more ambitious action plan.

Transparency International New Zealand contributed to a new report by Transparency International, which identifies critical risks to the integrity of political financing posed by online advertising. It makes five recommendations to policymakers worldwide.

Online public engagement has begun on New Zealand’s fourth Open Government National Action Plan, and you can get involved! Visit the online Delib platform was launched

We have a great year ahead of us filled with many exciting projects that we can't wait to share with you. Thank you all for your interest and continued support in Transparency International New Zealand, as we strive to hold power to account for the common good.

Transparency International New Zealand along with funding partners, is embarking on an exciting research project on corruption and money laundering across the Pacific.

As the Government rolls up its sleeves for its 2021 workload, a number of initiatives are underway that demonstrate anti-corruption is an important agenda item. Transparency International New Zealand is keeping watch on these ongoing efforts.

Algorithms are the foundation of most interactions between individuals and institutions, yet they are opaque. Transparency of algorithms is a 21st century anti-corruption issue.

New Zealand is managing itsCOVID response on an ongoing basis using the “high trust” model. Our team of 5 million is relied upon to do the right thing. Having independent objective assurance makes it possible.

Transparency International Anti-Corruption Helpdesk report on algorithmic transparency

I am excited and honoured to be the new Chair of Transparency International New Zealand. In this role I look forward to the opportunities ahead for TINZ to strengthen New Zealand as a Treaty partner, as a Pacific nation, and as a great democracy.

The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by global anti-corruption organization Transparency International ranks New Zealand’s public sector and judiciary first equal with Denmark as least corrupt in the world. New Zealand’s score of 88 out of 100 reflects a one point improvement from last year.

The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index exposes trends in corruption, as related to New Zealand, the Pacific and the world.

Transparency International chapters in New Zealand and Denmark agree that it is great to see well founded trust in our respective public services. But there are still integrity and transparency gaps, that are enabling corrupt practices which need fixing now.

New Zealand government agencies are falling woefully short in public reporting of their procurement information to the Government Electronic Tenders Service

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.

In New Zealand human rights law sits mainly within the purview of the Human Rights Commission, Crown Law and the Ministry of Justice.  Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt, is calling for New Zealand to take on the challenge of implementation, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because we are legally bound to this journey.

Transparency Times from the Chair October 2020. The new higher standard of transparency CNN set for the 2020 US election television coverage is a win for democracy.

Our Parliament has exhibited an admirable tone from the top during the COVID-19 crisis. A strong Parliamentary code of conduct goes a long way to ensuring they do as well during the next crisis

TINZ is releasing a report: Online Political Campaigning in New Zealand We recommend that Parliament takes the opportunity to not only maintain New Zealand’s status and reputation as a leader in political integrity, but to show other countries the way forward in dealing with this critical issue for protecting democracies and fighting political corruption.

Transparency International's report: Exporting Corruption 2020: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, finds that active international enforcement against foreign bribery is shockingly low. The report labels New Zealand at “limited enforcement.” and finds that New Zealand is not doing enough to fight foreign bribery.

“Anti-corruption advocacy in Fiji is urgently needed", says Jofiliti Veikoso, the Board Chairperson of Civic Leaders for Clean Transactions Integrity Fiji (CLCT-IF). "We are deeply grateful for the continued support of both Transparency International New Zealand and Transparency International in expediting our work during this challenging pandemic period."

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is undertaking a public consultation to understand the potential benefits, opportunities, and other impacts of extending the Government Procurement Rules to more government entities in the New Zealand public sector.

As New Zealand moves aggressively toward recovery, businesses have a chance to re-engineer their integrity systems to cement their brands in the post COVID-19 world.

Never in New Zealand’s history has it been more important to channel government spending inwardly to ensure it is delivering sustainable outcomes for New Zealanders. A Particularly salient section of the latest Government Procurement Rules is Rule 16 ‘Broader outcomes.’

Never in New Zealand’s history has it been more important to channel government spending inwardly to ensure it is delivering sustainable outcomes for New Zealanders. A Particularly salient section of the latest <em>Government Procurement Rules</em> is Rule 16 ‘Broader outcomes.’

Mary Jane Kivalu has joined the Transparency International New Zealand team as the Project Manager of our Network for South Pacific communities.

New Zealand’s commitment towards implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption is ongoing. There has been good progress in several areas, but plenty of room remains to more fully meet our commitments. One area in particular is the need for more transparency of beneficial ownership.

The new proposed Parliamentary Code of Conduct addresses important issues of inappropriate sexual conduct and bullying. The code is part of proposals to make Parliament a safer working environment, from one where unacceptable conduct had become &quot;normalised”.

Democracy faces daily new risks in the digital age. This article highlights a few tools like 'The complete guide to NZ Election 2020' which aim to create an informed electorate and provide transparency around political advertising and political content.

TINZ remains concerned that political parties are largely unaware of New Zealand’s vulnerability to the impact of corruption that originates overseas. They are generally naive about how our international reputation for strong integrity attracts the corrupt on one hand, while on the positive side, strengthening New Zealand's integrity systems to prevent this corruption has the potential to accrue value to their constituencies and to our economy.

The political parties' answers to TINZ's seven questions do not inspire confidence that they recognise the extent of the external threat of corruption and the leverage that a solid reputation brings to the New Zealand economy’s recovery, including the potential to repay debt at a faster rate.

Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) posed seven key questions to each political party on issues of transparency, anti-corruption and protection for whistleblowers. Here are their responses

Just-released reports by the Office of Auditor-General highlight the need for added transparency in government decision making and reporting outcomes. More civil society consultation in the UNCAC review is called for. And Suzanne thanks three parliamentarians who have worked hard to progress the anti-corruption agenda.

On 28 July, TINZ sent an open letter to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. &quot;We encourage you both to work with Chief Executives across government to ensure that their agencies meet the compliance standards in the Procurement Rules that have been mandated by Cabinet.&quot;

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) was found to have &quot;manifestly inadequate&quot; administration and institutional accountability systems for gathering, recording, preserving, investigating and providing information. This directly impacted on the quality of information provided by NZDF to successive Ministers of Defence, and through them to Parliament.

Join Transparency International New Zealand, the Victoria University Brian Picot Chair of Ethical Leadership and 2020 Election Candidates from across Wellington on Tuesday 6 October (rescheduled from 25 August), as they share their insights and perspectives on business and political integrity during our recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

It is disapointing that the leadership of the New Zealand Open Government Partnership (OGP) programme has not published any information on the programme for the last six months.

Without transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights are compromised and inequality may lead to greater corruption.  This is profoundly affecting peace and security across the globe.

June Brain Food Webinar recap The aspirational outcome for this webinar is that we can build a team to bring about changes to the law, policies and practice around beneficial ownership, to better protect New Zealand from potentially massive impacts of international grand corruption.

As we rebuild we will need to consider far more seriously how we manage our net-debt ratios, in particular over the next 12-24 months where we will see increased volatility. We need to urgently find different ways of working focussed on maintaining the liquidity flow in our businesses.

We have a long way to go to redress the imbalance of importing rare earths in return for exporting corruption. New Zealand should consider a law similar to that being introduced in Switzerland. Applying New Zealand’s relatively high standards externally, could go a long way towards helping New Zealand move to a small but influential role in reducing the import and export of corruption.

Extended Open Government Partnership (OGP) timeline gives government agencies an extra year to fully tackle the social, economic, political, or environmental problems they initially identified in the OGP action plan and also take COVID-19 into account.

For the effectiveness of the Protective Disclosures Bill as it currently stands before Parliament, the proof will be in the pudding. It will be important to have more rigorous monitoring of whistleblowing events and outcomes to determine if the new legislation actually encourages more people to speak up.

The level of compliance of government agencies with the mandatory procurement rules needs significant improvement. All government agencies need to improve the quality of the information that they monitor and publish about contract award notices.

This year TINZ offers voters a set of open-ended questions to ask candidates in the run-up to New Zealand’s central government election on 19 September. They are about fighting corruption, integrity, accountability and transparency. These questions complement more detailed questions we have put to the main political parties.

As we move past the COVID-19 epidemic and into recovery, there is an ongoing need for legislative and policy innovation. We must not forget our values in the excitement of doing new things.

TINZ Director, John Hall, suggests that &quot;Transparency is when society can trust leaders to use power for social good.&quot; Part of the reason why we struggle to understand transparency is that there are so many things we want to associate with it. Is there really a common thread between the many disparate concepts?

Leaders of the anti-corruption movement around the Pacific region convened in early February to facilitate networking, information sharing and to enhance the resilience of Pacific island countries against corruption.

TINZ is excited with the opportunity and some resource, to develop a South Pacific network focussing around anti-corruption and the benefits of transparency and integrity. The network will include organisations and individuals in the Pacific diaspora in New Zealand, while connecting to South Pacific nations, and Fiji.

The Archive and Record Association of New Zealand is determined to prove a positive way forward for all parties to reinvigorate the archive and records network. This is essential for documenting the activities and philosophies of New Zealand past, present and future.

New Zealand has been very supportive of Fiji in dealing with COVID-19 and Cyclone Harold. TINZ member Claire Johnstone, provided assistance to counter fake news and guide young leaders during these events.

Transparency International UK chapter created the Anti-corruption Pledge Tracker in 2017 and has maintained it since. This tool visualises and documents progress made since the conclusion of the summit. The latest update released in May 2020 reflects New Zealand's continued progress.

Government integrity is more critical than ever at times like this when it is under such extreme pressure. Transparency Times from the Chair April 2020.

TINZ Patron Lyn Provost shares some reflections on the support and leadership TINZ can provide during the COVID-19 response and recovery.

Transparency and accountability must not be lost in the haste to respond to COVID-19. Trust is a commodity that is vital to New Zealand's economic recovery in both domestic and export markets. Here are practical steps for businesses to take now while dealing with COVID-19 and preparing for after.

We consider it important that agencies are aware of, and meet, the expectations set out in the Rules of Procurement and the Quick guide to emergency procurement. We would encourage you to remind all public sector leaders of their accountability.

Along with many other civil society organisations Transparency International New Zealand has added its name to an international declaration on COVID-19 and its risks to open government.

As a consequence of panic buying in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments the world over have scrambled to award massive contracts to third-party vendors, with little if any, formal process and certainly no due diligence. This has sparked the interest of opportunists and crooks alike.

Throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) has continued to work on the Access to Secondary Legislation project. They now report on this in their latest technical update.

We need to consider how we continue to respond to this pandemic in the weeks, months and years ahead, ensuring that the rights of people are protected. Our vulnerable populations are very much at risk.

New Zealand has done well in securing personal protective equipment (PPE) but could do better, particularly when it comes to distributing it within the country.

Citizens have looked to the government for timely and reliable information to protect themselves, their families and their communities particularly in this time of crisis. The 2019 Open Budget Survey provides insight, strengths, weaknesses and practical areas of improvement in New Zealand's budget process. &nbsp;

As we focus on protecting everyone’s health and well-being from this unprecedented global virus, we are made acutely aware of life and death and the ways in which we manage the transition from one to the other. ...consider the voices we are losing, the stories that make up our collective memory and how we might “protect, record and cherish them, while we still have a chance.&quot;

New Zealand needs to address long-standing open government engagement and content issues in its next Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. The government and the public need to work together to resolve these issues so that more New Zealanders participate in New Zealand’s democracy.

While the publication of the NZ procurement data by MBIE is to be applauded, the quality and completeness of the data available continues to fall well short of genuine transparency. There is plenty of room for improvement.

What we have through epidemiology is an excellent compass, but we need a sextant - our population sampling expertise - to tell us where we are at. Without this, we are uncertain about our starting point or where we will end up.

Transparency and expertise provides a basis for optimism of a staged return to a more normal lifestyle.

Times of crisis bring out the very best of nearly everyone. Unfortunately it also brings out the few who look at this as a time of opportunity. From small scale scams on individuals to misuse of billions earmarked for aid, this is a time of great risk. There are lots of warnings, let's heed them.

COVID-19 is a virus on the march. China has shown that while it may not be stopped, this is a march that can be controlled. The virus can be controlled in New Zealand with transparency and accountability.

There is an urgent need to improve inclusivity and integration of our recent arrivals by overcoming intransigence and lack of transparency in the public service. By this means, they will flourish and successfully contribute to our society and overall wellbeing.

If last week's Open Government Partnership Fourth National Action Plan workshop is any indication, New Zealand's next plan will be the same as the last three, full of activities that are either ‘business as usual’ that should have occurred anyway, or  ‘side projects’ delivered on a wing-and-a-prayer.

Colombia’s government has, throughout the last decade, passed legislation, implemented technology and created a set of institutions that let citizens know what the government is up to. The publication of open data has given its citizens a better understanding of government initiatives that used to be known only by headlines.

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) announced a new criminal conviction under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act. This is a small positive outcome to an issue that is daunting to authorities around the world and within New Zealand.

Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) aims to ensure the current biennial engagement of the public in OGP will develop into more continuous involvement of civil society under a wider Open Government strategy.

Inquiry into the 2019 Local Elections and Liquor Licensing Trust Elections, and Recent Energy Trust Elections Submission, Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ), February 2020

Open Government Partnership (OGP) has a mandate to hear from you about the outcomes that you want from your government.

As we enter the community consultation phase to draft a new Open Government Partnership National Action Plan (2020-2022) for New Zealand, we know the current methods of engagement aren’t working and don’t lead to actions that truly reflect the aspirations of civil society.  Is it time to consider a different approach?

Guest author Tim Barnett discusses the complex issues and practical challenges of political party funding in New Zealand. He offers a couple of examples where these issues are being addressed in other ways that are worth considering for New Zealand.

A review of recent Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) activity around elections offers a broad-brush look at our initial plans for the 2020 electoral cycle.

New Zealand is developing it's fourth Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. Here is an update about planned events and a suggestion for areas where transformative initiatives are called for.

In early February, Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) offered a submission supporting the work of Stats NZ to create an Algorithm Charter. TINZ strongly supports the primary purpose of the charter – to put the right safeguards in place so that data ethics are embedded in the work, and so that people and communities being served by these tools are always front of mind. However, TINZ would like to see the Charter go further...