Council audits
Each year the Auditor-General audits every local authority's annual report and, on a three-year cycle, its long-term plan. This is the aggregate record of those audits — the published state of local government's books, one tier of the institutions this index reads. Counts only, across all councils: never a ranking, never a named council.
23 of 78 annual reports carried a qualified opinion; 10 were signed off standard. 5 of 12 deferred long-term plans drew an adverse opinion — in the 2024-34 round, 2 of 58 did.
The words, in plain form. Standard: the auditor signed the report off without reservation. Qualified: the auditor found a material problem, or could not check one. Adverse: the auditor judged the accounts misleading. Emphasis of matter: the auditor drew attention to something, without finding the accounts wrong. The Auditor-General's own definitions.
Checked · this record as data
2024/25 annual reports — all 78 local authorities
| Outcome | Councils | Share of the 78 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 10 | 13% | Office of the Auditor-General, council audit results 2024/25 (dataset) |
| Non-standard | 67 | 86% | Office of the Auditor-General, council audit results 2024/25 (dataset) |
| Incomplete | 1 | 1% | Office of the Auditor-General, council audit results 2024/25 (dataset) |
| With a qualified opinionoverlapping | 23 | 29% | Office of the Auditor-General, council audit results 2024/25 (dataset) |
| With an emphasis of matteroverlapping | 60 | 77% | Office of the Auditor-General, council audit results 2024/25 (dataset) |
The first three rows split every council audited. The last two overlap — a council can carry both a qualified opinion and an emphasis of matter in the same year — so the rows do not sum.
2025-34 long-term plans — the 12 that deferred adoption
| Outcome | Councils | Share of those audited | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adverse | 5 | 42% | Office of the Auditor-General, Results of council audits in 2025 (2026) |
| Unmodified, with an emphasis of matter | 7 | 58% | Office of the Auditor-General, Results of council audits in 2025 (2026) |
| Qualified | 0 | 0% | Office of the Auditor-General, Results of council audits in 2025 (2026) |
| Unmodified | 0 | 0% | Office of the Auditor-General, Results of council audits in 2025 (2026) |
Only the councils that deferred adoption to 30 June 2025 are in this round. In the 2024-34 round, 58 long-term plans were audited and 2 drew adverse opinions.
The record, in its own words
All 78 local authorities, 2024/25 annual reports (financial statements and statements of service performance), plus the 2025-34 long-term plans of the 12 councils that deferred adoption to 30 June 2025.
The Auditor-General states that an emphasis of matter paragraph does not necessarily mean that the auditor has found anything wrong. In 2025 the common reason for all five adverse long-term plan opinions was the assumptions used for future water services delivery, while councils were still consulting on the model.
Counts only. The index reads institutions in aggregate and does not rank councils. A council can have both a qualified opinion and an emphasis of matter paragraph, so the categories overlap.