Innovation Award for Auckland Council's Annual Plan

Auckland Council has won national recognition for innovative financial planning for its first Annual Plan, which sets out the council’s priorities for the 2011-2012 year.

This award was open to innovative finance projects led by a finance team and completed over the past 12 months (to 9 December 2011) in New Zealand.

The New Zealand CFO Financial Innovation Project award recognised the council’s success in creating one cohesive $2.8 billion budget from the eight former councils’ plans within eight months and amidst significant change.

Judges commented that the council’s financial planning and policy team’s achievement was unprecedented given the task of assimilating a collective financial vision from the legacy councils, especially in view of the technical challenge of dealing with numerous legacy systems.

Specifically, the judges noted that the challenge of managing complex decision making (new governance model of Governing Body and 21 Local Boards) in the midst of substantive organisational change, and delivering substantial operating expenditure savings, was why this project was so innovative and deserved to win.

“The 2011-2012 Annual Plan was a critical component in putting the building blocks in place for a unified Auckland,” judges declared.