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Public Audit Act 2001

Information-gathering powers and disclosure of information

25: Power of Auditor-General to obtain information

You could also call this:

"The Auditor-General can ask for information to help them do their job."

Illustration for Public Audit Act 2001

The Auditor-General can ask a public entity or person for information to do their job. You might be asked to show the Auditor-General a document you have, or to give them information or explain something. The Auditor-General can ask you for this information to help them do their work.

If the Auditor-General asks someone who is not part of the public entity for information, they must tell that person what information they need and why they need it. If the information is about the person themselves, the Auditor-General must follow the rules set out in section 22 of the Privacy Act 2020. This helps keep the person's personal information safe.

The Auditor-General can pay the person for the cost of giving the information, and then get that money back from the public entity the information is about.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM88910.

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24: Access to information, or

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"The Auditor-General can ask you to answer questions honestly, and you must tell the truth."

Part 4Information-gathering powers and disclosure of information

25Power of Auditor-General to obtain information

  1. For the purposes of exercising or performing the Auditor-General’s functions, duties, or powers, the Auditor-General may require a public entity or any person to:

  2. produce to the Auditor-General a document in the entity’s or person’s custody, care, or control:
    1. provide the Auditor-General with information or an explanation about any information.

      1. If any information is required from a person who is not a member, employee, or office holder of the public entity, the Auditor-General must—

      2. advise the person in writing of the nature of the information; and
        1. state that it is required under this section; and
          1. if the person is an individual and the information required is personal information about that individual, comply with information privacy principle 3 set out in section 22 of the Privacy Act 2020.

            1. The Auditor-General may pay the person referred to in subsection (2) the reasonable costs and disbursements of providing the information and may recover those costs and disbursements from the public entity to which the information relates.

            Notes
            • Section 25(2)(c): amended, on , by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).