Corruption in New Zealand

This article discusses the responsibilities of the various agencies involved in combating corruption in New Zealand. New Zealand is regarded as having one of the lowest levels of corruption in the world.^[1]

Agencies

Serious Fraud Office

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is the lead law enforcement agency for investigating and prosecuting serious financial crime, including bribery^[2] and corruption. In 2020, the SFO reported that it had seen a 40 percent increase in cases involving public officials, central and local government, in the past five years.^[3]

Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission is responsible for the administration of parliamentary elections and promoting compliance with electoral laws, including those around the size and transparency of donations. If they believe the law is being broken, they refer the matter to the Police or Serious Fraud Office.^[4]^[5]

Independent Police Conduct Authority

The Independent Police Conduct Authority is an independent body that considers complaints against New Zealand Police and oversees their conduct.^[6] Under section 12 of the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act 1988, "the Authority's functions are to: receive complaints alleging misconduct or neglect of duty by any member of Police or concerning any Police practice, policy or procedure affecting a complainant; and to investigate incidents in which a member of Police (acting in the execution of his or her duty) causes or appears to have caused death or serious bodily harm."^[7]

Ombudsman

The Ombudsman's role is to ensure citizens receive 'fair play' in their dealings with government entities, and they investigate where required.^[8] Over the years the powers of the Office have been extended to include education and hospital boards (from 1968), local government agencies (1975), requests under the Official Information Act (2003) and in 2005, all crown entities.^[9]

Conventions

New Zealand has ratified several important international anti-corruption conventions such as the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions^[10] and the United Nations Convention against Corruption.^[11]

International ranking

New Zealand is regarded as having one of the lowest levels of corruption in the world.^[1] Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index scores 180 countries according to the perceived corruption of their public sector on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). Those countries are then ranked by their score; the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.^[12] In the 2023 Index, New Zealand earned the third highest score worldwide, 85. The best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180).^[13] In the Asia Pacific region^{[Note 1]} New Zealand's was the highest score. The average regional score was 45 and the lowest was 17.^[14]

Notes

^ Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, and Vietnam