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Waste Minimisation Act 2008

Reporting and audits - Audits

88: Audit in respect of certain matters relating to facility or person

You could also call this:

"Checking if you're doing the right thing with waste disposal and levy money"

Illustration for Waste Minimisation Act 2008

You can be audited if you run a disposal facility or if you are a person who has to keep records. The auditor wants to know if you are paying the right amount of levy and if you are keeping the right records. They also want to know if you are spending the levy money correctly.

You might be audited if you collect levy money or if you get levy money to spend. The auditor checks if you are doing what you are supposed to do with the levy money. They also check if you are keeping the right records and making the right reports.

If you are audited, the auditor has some powers to help them do their job. They can enter your premises if they are appointed as an enforcement officer, or they can use other powers to get the information they need. They must show you their identity and appointment as an auditor if you ask them to.

The auditor must keep the information they get during the audit secret. They can only share it with certain people, like the Secretary or the Minister, or if they need to use it in a court case. This is to make sure that the information is only used for the right purposes.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1154682.

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87: Secretary may require audit, or

"The government can ask for a check to make sure people are following the waste rules"

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"Setting up a group to help reduce waste in New Zealand"

Part 6Reporting and audits
Audits

88Audit in respect of certain matters relating to facility or person

  1. An auditor may audit the following facilities or persons for the purpose of obtaining, and reporting to the Secretary on, information about the matters specified in relation to the facility or person:

  2. a disposal facility, or its operator, in respect of—
    1. payment of the levy by the operator:
      1. compliance by the operator with any prescribed requirement to keep or provide records or other information:
      2. any person, in respect of the person’s compliance with any prescribed requirement to keep or provide records or other information:
        1. an appointed levy collector, in respect of the collection of levy that the collector is appointed to collect:
          1. a territorial authority that receives levy money, in respect of the spending of the levy money:
            1. any person who is paid levy money under section 30(c)(ii), in respect of the spending of the levy money:
              1. the scheme manager of an accredited scheme, or any person who has agreed to participate in the scheme, in respect of their compliance with the scheme’s requirements to keep records or make reports:
                1. any person, in respect of the person’s compliance with regulations made under section 22(1)(a) or 23.

                  1. For the purposes of subsection (1), an auditor may exercise—

                  2. the power of entry under section 79(1)(a) only if appointed an enforcement officer under section 76(1)(b); or
                    1. the powers of an enforcement officer under section 79(1)(b) or (c), despite not being an enforcement officer, but must produce evidence of his or her identity and appointment as an auditor whenever reasonably required to do so.

                      1. An auditor must not disclose to any person information obtained in the exercise of the auditor’s powers, except—

                      2. in a prosecution under this Act; or
                        1. in an action for the recovery of any amount due under this Act; or
                          1. to the Secretary, the Minister, or a person authorised by the Secretary or the Minister to receive the information.