{"asOf":"2026-09-29","scope":"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.","annualReports2024_25":{"councils":78,"standard":10,"nonStandard":67,"incomplete":1,"withQualifiedOpinion":23,"withEmphasisOfMatter":60,"source":{"label":"Office of the Auditor-General, council audit results 2024/25 (dataset)","url":"https://ao.parliament.nz/data/councils-data/council-audits-2025.csv","kind":"primary"}},"longTermPlans2025_34":{"councilsAudited":12,"adverse":5,"unmodifiedWithEmphasisOfMatter":7,"qualified":0,"unmodified":0,"comparison2024_34":{"councilsAudited":58,"adverse":2},"source":{"label":"Office of the Auditor-General, Results of council audits in 2025 (2026)","url":"https://ao.parliament.nz/2026/local-govt","kind":"primary"}},"reading":"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.","definitionsSource":{"label":"Office of the Auditor-General, 2024-34 long-term plans report, appendix on audit report types","url":"https://ao.parliament.nz/2025/long-term-plans/docs/long-term-plans.pdf","kind":"primary"},"notes":"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."}