Auditor-General says Provincial Growth Fund investments not properly scrutinized

The Office of the Auditor-General has written a letter to Parliament saying not enough attention is being paid to whether Provincial Growth Fund investments are worthwhile. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is a legacy of the 2017 coalition government in which New Zealand First negotiated the $3 billion fund for regional development projects. The Auditor-General, which has been critical of the fund in the past, said it would examine these changes — which it called ‘the PGF reset’ — at an appropriate time. It said the PGF reset had not met all its expectations, despite those expectations being low as the reset had been “designed and implemented at speed” during pandemic uncertainty. Act Party leader David Seymour said the provincial growth fund was never about regional economic development.