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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Structural arrangements for providing water services - Water organisations - Governance of water organisations: consumer trusts

59: Annual report

You could also call this:

"Trustees must write a yearly report on what they did to help the trust and its finances."

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

The trustees of a consumer trust have to make a report each year about what they did. This report must talk about what the trustees did to help the trust achieve its purpose. It must also say if the trustees' expectations about owning and controlling the water organisation were met.

The report must include the trust's financial statements, which have been checked by an auditor, and the Auditor-General's report on the trust's financial statements.

You can think of the Auditor-General's report like a check to make sure the trust's financial statements are correct. The trustees have to finish the report as soon as they can after the end of the financial year and make it public no later than 15 working days after they get the Auditor-General's report under section 58.

If a trustee does not do this, and they do not have a good reason, they can get a fine of up to $200,000. There is a special rule for trusts that are set up near the end of a financial year - they have to make a report after their first full year.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1444468.

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Part 2Structural arrangements for providing water services
Water organisations: Governance of water organisations: consumer trusts

59Annual report

  1. The trustees of a consumer trust must, in relation to each financial year, prepare and adopt an annual report that, for the financial year to which it relates,—

  2. reports on—
    1. the trustees’ activities to further the purpose of the trust; and
      1. the extent to which the trustees’ expectations in relation to ownership and control of the water organisation (as set out in the organisation’s statement of expectations) have been met; and
      2. contains—
        1. the consumer trust’s audited financial statements; and
          1. the Auditor-General’s report on the trust’s financial statements.

          2. The trustees must—

          3. prepare the annual report as soon as practicable after the end of the financial year to which it relates; and
            1. adopt the report and make it publicly available no later than 15 working days after receiving the Auditor-General’s report under section 58.

              1. Despite subsection (2)(a), the trustees of a consumer trust that is established less than 4 months before the end of a financial year must, after the end of the trust’s first full financial year, prepare and adopt an annual report that covers the period from the date on which the trust is established until the end of the first full financial year.

              2. A trustee who, knowingly and without lawful excuse, fails to comply with subsection (2)(b) commits an offence punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding $200,000.