The Office of the Auditor-General has delivered a scathing indictment of the Government’s Three Waters reforms.

In a submission to a Parliamentary committee, the Office of the Auditor-General said the proposed Three Waters Bill proposes no requirement for a WSE’s (Water Services Entities) planning documents to be audited.

There was also no proposed audit scrutiny of the WSE’s engagement with local communities.

Controller and Auditor-General John Ryan said he “considers this to be a serious diminution in accountability to the public for a critical service.

I strongly recommend that the Committee consider the requirements for independent assurance in all aspects of the operations of these new entities and whether WSEs should be required to produce a 10-year plan similar to LTPs that is also audited.”

Ryan said “the role of the chief executive and the Board could also be more clearly delineated.”

“Overall, I am concerned that, as currently drafted in the Bill, the accountability arrangements and potential governance weaknesses, combined with the diminution in independent assurance noted earlier, could have an adverse effect on public accountability, transparency, and organisational performance.”

National’s Local Government spokesman Simon Watts said the submission delivers a damning analysis of the overlap of proposed governance structures, lack of access to information by the public to scrutinise the proposed Water Entities, a lack of performance measures and a lack of integration with other reforms and local planning.”

Watts said “the Government arrogantly ignored the criticism of local communities and National when it was told these reforms were unaccountable and not transparent, and now they are being confronted with the reality. 

 National has said from day one that these proposed reforms wouldn’t give communities access to accountability for the performance of these entities, and that their structure made them destined to fail. These concerns have been backed by the Office of the Auditor-General.”

Watts said “the Government cannot now continue to ignore the critics of their reforms, and the public. 

“If the Government goes ahead, despite the overwhelming criticism, National will repeal the changes and ensure water assets remain in local ownership.”