• Assist Fire and Emergency to develop policy and organisational arrangements to
encourage, maintain and strengthen the capability of volunteers2
• Carry out its consultation obligations under the Act3
• Provide specialist advocacy and support services to its volunteers4
• Assist Fire and Emergency to fulfil its good employer duties in respect of Fire and
Emergency volunteers5.
We receive a comprehensive report from UFBA on a six-monthly basis as per our agreed
performance monitoring framework on the areas we fund.
In May 2019, the Fire and Emergency Board approved UFBA funding for the 2019/20 financial
year. That funding was expressly subject to UFBA agreeing, arranging and providing Fire and
Emergency with an audit report from an external audit provider by the end of 2019 The scope of
that external audit report was to examine whether the funding provided by Fire and Emergency
had been used for the purposes for which it was provided and that the funded services had been
delivered.
To facilitate this, Fire and Emergency and the UFBA agreed terms of reference for the external
audit. These included:
• how much of UFBA cash reserves represent unutilis d funding from Fire and Emergency,
if any?
• whether the funding provided by Fire and Emergency has been used for the purposes
the funding was provided for?
• whether services the funding supported have been delivered?
• the review period is from 2014 onwards.
In response to the above requirement, the UFBA conducted an internal review. Although we
have not been provided with a copy, we also understand that a peer review of that work was
completed by Grant Thornton. The UFBA presented its findings to Fire and Emergency in
December 2019.
Fire and Emergency has carefully considered the UFBA’s internal review and determined that it
does not satisfy our condition that the funding be provided subject to an external audit of the
UFBA’s funding from Fire and Emergency.
As a Crown entity, Fire and Emergency is required to ensure that any funding we allocate is used
under the Offical Information Act 1982
appropriately, and for the purposes for which it was provided. In order to satisfy the original
condition of the 2019/2020 funding, we still require an external audit.
It is therefore our intention to commission an external auditor to complete an independent
review of the Fire and Emergency funding provided to the UFBA. We expect that the UFBA will
fully cooperate with this external audit. When commissioning this external audit, our expectation
2 See Section 36(1)(c) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017
3 See Section 36(1)(c) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017
Released
4 See Section 36(1) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017
5 See Section 36 of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017
is that the original terms of reference will be updated.
As indicated above, in addition to the original scope of the external audit, Fire and Emergency
also requires that the terms of reference include:
• whether any Fire and Emergency funding has been used by the UFBA to establish Tāngata
Matatau, both as an incorporated society and a limited liability company
We look forward to your confirmation that you will fully cooperate in this external audit.
Yours sincerely
Hon Paul Swain
Chairman
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Board
under the Offical Information Act 1982
Released
