16 August 2024
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #27960 email]
Dear Chris
RESPONSE TO YOUR OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST
Thank you for your email of 7 August 2024, in which you requested, pursuant to the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following information:
Are you able to provide the Total Revenue received from "Other Sources" from 2005
– 2024
Can you provide this in excel format to include
Individual Payment Amount
Vendor (who paid NZDF)
Reason for Payment / Service Rendered
On the 7 August, the Ministry replied seeking clarification about your request, particularly in
relation to your reference to the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF). As we have not yet
had a response we have endeavoured to respond to the best of our understanding.
The Departmental Financial Statements section in the Ministry’s annual reports provide the
details of ‘other revenue’ for each financial year. The statement of comprehensive revenue
and expense includes the total amount of other revenue, and the breakdown includes the
reasons for the revenue.
The majority of ‘other revenue’ reflects costs incurred by the Ministry in the pre-acquisition
development phase for major capability projects. These costs are recovered back from the
NZDF. Convention is that funding for major capability projects in the development phase is
held by NZDF, and where the Ministry undertakes specific activities on the NZDF’s behalf,
the Ministry recovers these costs from NZDF, and these are reflected as ‘other revenue’ in
the financial statements.
A smaller proportion of ‘other revenue’ may cover:
other cost recoveries that relate to reimbursement of costs by other government agencies
for activities that contributed to both agencies
proceeds from insurance claims, for example an insurance pay-out from a Ministry
building that was damaged in the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake, and
revenue from other gains such as sale and disposal of minor assets.
Ministry annual reports dating back to 2005 are publicly available from the following
websites:
annual reports back to 2013 can be found through a search of ‘Annual Report’ on the
Ministry’s website at:
https://www.defence.govt.nz/publications/.
annual reports between 2005 and 2013 can be found at the following National Library
webarchive of the Ministry’s previous website:
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20150518090044/http://www.defence.govt.n
z/reports-publications/archive-reports-publications.html.
These reports outline the amounts paid, and provide the broad details of where the revenue
was received from. Again, the majority of such payments will reflect reimbursements from the
NZDF in relation to major capability projects in the pre-acquisition development phase.
Details of the major capability projects to which this revenue is likely to relate to will be
outlined in the associated annual report. Since 2010, further details about the delivery of
these projects is provided in the Ministry’s annual Major Projects Reports, which are
available through the above websites.
Providing the additional details you request across the 19-year time period you are seeking
would require reviewing a large volume of historic records, including archived material only
available in hardcopy. Recognising that the substantive detail is already publicly available, as
set out above, and that any non-NZDF payments are for relatively small amounts – and so of
limited public interest – I am declining your request pursuant to section 18(f) of the Act.
If you have a specific payment that you are interested in, please contact us and we can
undertake a more specific, focused search.
Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to request the Ombudsman to investigate
and review this response.
Yours sincerely
Pasanka Wickremasinghe
Chief Financial Officer
