Progress on Freshwater Investment Recommendations

In September 2019, The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) released an audit report on how well the Ministry for the Environment was administering Crown investment in freshwater clean-up projects.

The report and its findings can be found here; Crown investment in freshwater clean-up.

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has made significant improvements to their funding processes as a result of the audit report. This ensures the way they manage freshwater funding is focused on improving freshwater across Aotearoa and aligns with our wider work programme.

Two major initiatives announced in 2020 have shaped the funding landscape since the report was released. The Essential Freshwater reforms – a package of freshwater policies, and the $1.219 billion Jobs for Nature programme - an environmentally focused COVID-19 recovery package.

The Jobs for Nature funding alongside the Freshwater reform package has allowed the Ministry to transition from an agency that has traditionally managed small amounts of freshwater funding to being the lead agency driving an accelerated, co-ordinated, all-of-government approach to address freshwater challenges, supported by a significantly larger amount of Crown investment.

The full response from the Ministry of the Environment on how we have acted in response to recommendations made by OAG is available on the OAG website.