Preparations for consent accreditation
A ‘‘GAP analysis audit’’ preceding an assessment to determine if the Queenstown Lakes District Council can continue to issue building consents identified several noncompliances, some serious, a council committee heard this week.
Next week the council will undergo its twoyearly International Accreditation of New Zealand (IANZ) assessment to retain accreditation.
In 2016 the council almost lost the ability to issue building consents after 10 major noncompliances were detected in an assessment and it was put on notice.
Its last assessment, in October 2017, identified six — the national average of noncompliance was 15 and the worst, to date, was 32.
Building and services manager Chris English told the council’s audit, finance and risk committee on Thursday the council had achieved a ‘‘very good assessment outcome’’ two years ago and to prepare for the next it hired a consultant to audit the team and measure it against regulations.
While some of the noncompliances identified were easily addressed, others were more complex, Mr English said.
One was the Code of Compliance process. The council had made changes last year to improve clarity and efficiency, which had worked. It did not meet regulatory compliance, however.
‘‘The compliance team is now working to change the process so that it does meet the regulations.’’
Issues were also found in the ‘‘continuous improvement process’’, which had been paperbased and inefficient, so a ‘‘ProMapp module’’ had been introduced to address that.
Mr English said the department had also increased from 27 to 42 fulltime equivalent staff, but still had eight positions to fill, including building control officers who were ‘‘virtually impossible to find’’.
The council’s building consent authority was one of the largest in New Zealand based on building consent volumes — there had been about 2000 in the 201920 financial year with a value of
$850 million.
While Dunedin City Council processed more building consents during that time, the value of those was about
$300 million.
IANZ would provide a preliminary result of the assessment next Friday, Mr English said.