3 November 2023
Barry Murphy
[FYI request #24395 email]
Dear Mr Murphy
Thank you for your email of 11 October 2023 to Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities,
requesting the following information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please provide statistics regarding COI's registered:
1./ By year for the last 3 years (during the annual August audit (i.e. 55 in August
2021 22 in August 2022, 30 in August 2023) 2./ Please provide the same count of
COI's registered outside of the annual audit for the last 3 years 3./ If you prefer,
you can provide a total count by month for the last 3 years and confirm the period
the audit falls under if there is a specific time frame (i.e. full month of August, all
COI's will be via audit)
Kāinga Ora expects all employees, contractors, consultants, and board members to abide
by the public sector Standards of Integrity and Conduct. This includes a requirement for
them to identify, declare and manage conflicts of interest - potential, actual, and perceived
- to ensure that decisions are made and are seen to be made on proper grounds, for
legitimate reasons and without bias arising from their personal or financial interests or
their interactions with friends, family or other individuals and organisations.
The process is outlined in the Kāinga Ora conflict of interest policy, procedure, and
guideline, which cover the disclosure and recording of conflicts of interest. Disclosures are
made online through Kāinga Ora systems.
I have attached a table that includes the number of conflict of interest declarations, by
month, for the past three years. This table includes all declarations made, whether they be
actual, perceived or potential. It also includes those who record "I have nothing to
declare", and instances where a declaration was made but it was later determined that
there was no conflict. It should be noted that some Kāinga Ora people made multiple
declarations over this period, particularly in the last 12 months with a change in reporting
systems which asks targeted questions to assist Kāinga Ora people to identify if they have
a declaration to make.
Declarations are regularly monitored and as such, there is no ‘August audit’. Therefore,
your questions relating to this are declined under section 18(g) of the Act as this
information is not held by Kāinga Ora.
However, Kāinga Ora runs an annual Public Service and Integrity week in which our
people are encouraged to make an annual conflict of interest declaration, which results in
an increase in declarations made during that time. In the previous three years this took
place during June 2021, June 2022 and August 2023.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this
response. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or Freephone 0800 802 602.
Please note that Kāinga Ora proactively releases our responses to official information
requests where possible. Our response to your request may be published at
https:/ kaingaora.govt.nz/publications/official-information-requests/ with your personal
information removed.
Yours sincerely
Rowan Macrae
GM People Governance and Capability
