The first release of the Investor Confidence Rating (ICR) has given government agencies a mid to high level rating for investment management practices, Finance Minister Bill English says.

'The ICR provides a valuable evidence-based assessment of how the Crown's most investment-intensive agencies are performing and where they have scope to improve further.”

The Treasury has completed its assessment and rating of the first tranche of government agencies that manage significant Crown investments and assets.

The ICR uses a rating scale from A to E, with an ‘A' rating signalling a high level of performance, a ‘C' rating indicating sound practices are in place, and an ‘E' rating indicating significant assistance is needed for the investment to deliver results.

'Establishing how agencies are managing investment and assets is critical to ensuring taxpayer money is being used as effectively as possible,” Mr English says.

'Just like companies have credit ratings which show how sound their investments are, we are requiring government agencies to obtain Investor Confidence Ratings which show how strong they are at managing investments and assets like new schools, roads and IT projects.”

Tranche One results are for the first six of 25 agencies and show that overall they have very good investment management practices in place, with four of the six agencies receiving a ‘B' rating or higher.

Inland Revenue attained an ‘A' rating, and ‘B' ratings went to ACC, Defence, and NZTA. The Ministry of Education and the Department of Corrections each reached a mid-level rating of ‘C'.

'The rating isn't about a pass or fail, it's a tool that agencies can use to lift aspects of their investment management that would benefit from better systems or processes,” Mr English says.

'Agencies that receive a very good rating can expect greater autonomy, higher financial delegations and less onerous monitoring and reporting while agencies that do not rate as well will receive additional monitoring and support.”

Further tranches will be released later this year and early next year.

Tranche One results can be found at: www.treasury.govt.nz/statesector/investmentmanagement/review/icr/results

SOURCE: Office of Bill English