New Zealand Treasury

The Treasury
Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa
Agency overview
Formed 1840
Jurisdiction New Zealand
Headquarters Level 5,
1 The Terrace,
Wellington 6011
Employees 363
Annual budget Vote Finance
Total budget for 2016/17
Decrease$4,983,042,000[1]
Ministers responsible
Agency executive
  • Gabriel Makhlouf,
    Chief Executive and Secretary
Child agency
Website www.treasury.govt.nz

The New Zealand Treasury (Māori: Kaitohutohu Kaupapa Rawa) is the central public service department of New Zealand charged with advising the government on economic and financial policy, assisting with improving the performance of New Zealand's economy, and managing financial resources.

Treasury has four main functions:

History

The Treasury is one of New Zealand’s oldest institutions, having been first established in 1840. Initially the Treasury consisted of just a few officials responsible for managing the Government’s day-to-day financial affairs. In the 1920s the department took on a supervisory role over other departments’ spending and oversight of government borrowing.[2]

However, the most dramatic change to the role of the Treasury came in the 1950s when the department began to develop its role as economic advisor to the Government. The Treasury “hit the spotlight” in this role during a wave of far-reaching, and often controversial, economic reforms in the 1980s and early 1990s. This period also coincided with a general shift towards higher scrutiny of government activity and performance, making the Finance portfolio and Treasury operations more transparent.

Since the 1950s, the Treasury has evolved from being a control agency to a “central agency”. During this time, departments have become largely free to manage their own resources, with the Treasury’s role being to provide central agency leadership, coordination and monitoring.

Between 2008 and 2011 Treasury administered the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme. Under the scheme the government bailed out nine finance firms including South Canterbury Finance to the value of approximately $2 billion.[3]

Today the Treasury employs 363 people, is the Government’s lead advisor on economic and financial policy, and has the overall vision of helping governments achieve higher living standards for New Zealanders.

Role

Specific areas of work undertaken by the Treasury include:

Ministers

The Treasury serves 4 portfolios, 1 other responsibility, 6 ministers and 1 parliamentary undersecretary.[4]

OFFICEHOLDER PORTFOLIO(S) OTHER RESPONSIBILITY(IES)
Hon Steven Joyce Lead Minister (The Treasury)
Minister of Finance
Minister for Infrastructure
Hon Gerry Brownlee Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission
Hon Simon Bridges Associate Lead Minister (The Treasury) Associate Minister of Finance
Hon Amy Adams Associate Lead Minister (The Treasury) Associate Minister of Finance
Hon Todd McClay Minister for State Owned Enterprises
Hon Paul Goldsmith Minister for Regulatory Reform
David Seymour MP Parliamentary Undersecretary (Regulatory Reform)

List of Secretaries to the Treasury

The Secretary to the Treasury is the public service head of the department.

Name Dates
George Cooper 1840–1842
Alexander Shepherd 1842–1856
Christopher Richmond 1857–1858
G. C. Rodda 1935–1939
Bernard C. Ashwin 1939–1955
Ed Greensmith 1955-1964
Doug Barker 1964-
Noel Davis -1968
Henry Lang 1968–1977
Noel Vernon Lough 1977–1980
Bernie Galvin 1980–1986
Graham Scott 1986–1993
Murray Horn 1993–1998
Alan Bollard 1998 – April 2002
Mark Prebble (acting) April 2002 – 8 April 2003
John Whitehead 8 April 2003 - 1 June 2011
Gabriel Makhlouf 1 June 2011 -

Structure

Senior leadership[5]

Units within the Treasury

Debt Management Office

The New Zealand Debt Management Office (NZDMO) is the part of The Treasury responsible for managing the Crown’s debt, its cash flows and its interest-bearing deposits. The 1988 reforms of the Government’s financial management led to its establishment with the aim of improving the management of the Government’s debt portfolio.[6]

Central Agencies Shared Services

Central Agencies Shared Services (CASS) is a shared services center housed within the Treasury. Set up in March 2012, it provides information technology and management, human resources, and finance services to the Treasury, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the State Services Commission.[7] Aside from providing these services, the goal of CASS is to set an example for other state sector organizations in sharing service delivery functions.[8]

Crown company monitoring

The Crown owns many companies, including state-owned enterprises, Crown entities, and Crown Research Institutes. The Treasury's Commercial Operations group assists the Crown in the running of these. This group includes what was the Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit (COMU, pronounced "co-moo") from November 2009 to February 2014,[9] and before that the Crown Company Monitoring and Advisory Unit.[10]

Controversies

The Treasury has courted controversy, particularly since the Rogernomics reforms of the 1980s. Given the agency's key influence and impact on fiscal policy, it has been accused by critics in recent years of inaccurate forecasts,[11] regulatory capture and political partisanism,[12][13][14][15] and accepting corporate gifts from the financial industry.[16][17]

References

  1. "Total Appropriations for Each Vote". 2016 Budget. The Treasury.
  2. "History of the Treasury". The Treasury. 10 October 2014.
  3. "The Treasury: Implementing and managing the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme" (PDF). Office of the Auditor-General. New Zealand Government. September 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  4. "Ministerial List". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 11 April 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  5. "Treasury Organisation Structure — The Treasury - New Zealand". www.treasury.govt.nz. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
  6. "Welcome to the New Zealand Debt Management Office (NZDMO)". New Zealand Debt Management Office. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  7. "Central Agencies Shared Services (CASS)". The Treasury. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  8. Setting up Central Agencies Shared Services (PDF) (Report). Wellington: Controller and Auditor-General of New Zealand. June 2014. p. 7.
  9. "Treasury completes review of commercial operations". Treasury. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  10. "Corporate governance". 2010 Annual Portfolio Report. Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  11. Bernard Hickey (2011-05-15). "Take forecasts with grain of salt". Auckland: NZ Herald.
  12. "Treasury defends accounting practice of not booking potential SOE dividend losses from SOE sell-down until after election". Interest.co.nz. 2012-02-29.
  13. John Hartevelt (2012-03-21). "Stick to knitting, teachers tell Treasury". Wellington: Dominion Post.
  14. John Armstrong (2012-04-07). "Commission fiddles while its cred burns". Wellington: NZ Herald.
  15. Paul McBeth (2012-01-24). "Treasury stuck in its ways - stakeholders". NZ Herald.
  16. John Hartevelt (2011-07-23). "Treasury gift investigation considered". Wellington: Dominion Post.
  17. John Hartevelt (2011-07-22). "Greens demand audit over corporate gifts". Wellington: Dominion Post.
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