People's watchdog isn't afraid to put his teeth to work

Kevin Brady

Kevin Brady has the most high-profile accountancy job in the country but one of the lowest public profiles.

Despite having conducted several notable inquiries - such as investigations into the activities of disgraced former Act MP Donna Awatere Huata and the finances of Te Wananga o Aotearoa - the veteran Audit Office employee has generally avoided the limelight.

That has changed in recent months as the super-heated political atmosphere surrounding his inquiry into election spending resulted in yesterday's report on the issue becoming one of the most eagerly anticipated documents in recent times - more so after an early draft was leaked.

Previous Auditors-General have generally kept out of the media but Mr Brady has taken the unusual step of commenting to reporters, telling the Herald he had clearly warned MPs to watch their election spending.

Co-workers said Mr Brady would have been unruffled by the political rumpus that erupted from those interviews.

One said he set and maintained high professional standards while another said the process to be appointed was rigorous and a person did not get the job unless people were convinced "you had the balls to do it and the independence to not be called into question".

As Auditor-General, Mr Brady is the people's watchdog, scrutinising how public servants spend their money.

An independent Officer of Parliament, he oversees a team of auditors which scrutinises how the Crown, government departments, Crown entities, state-owned enterprises, local authorities and statutory bodies manage their affairs.

Each is assessed on its overall performance, whether it acted within its authority and in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice, whether it acted appropriately and accountably, and whether any public money has been wasted.

The Auditor-General is appointed for a once-only term of seven years and has a high degree of independence from the Executive and Parliament.

Mr Brady's latest report is a trend rather than a one-off punch.

In 2004, he slammed New Zealand Trade and Enterprise for the management of almost $50 million in business support grants as sloppy and inadequate.

The administration of the Strategic Investment Fund was found to be particularly deficient and Labour's Working for Families advertising last year also copped a serve.

Acting on a complaint from National MP Murray McCully, Mr Brady said the Government's process for costing the expensive advertising campaign lacked rigour.

"Overall, we would have expected a more robust process to be used and for more detailed information to be available to support a budget bid for $21.15 million," he said.

"The level of scrutiny by the Treasury of the Communications Strategy budget was less than we would expect for new expenditure of this magnitude."

In the end Labour reduced the spending to $15 million.

The people's watchdog has doggie interests of his own, being a greyhound racing fan and also likes lawn bowling.

Born in Oamaru, Mr Brady was educated at St Kevin's Catholic boys school and has a master of public policy degree from Victoria University.

He joined the Audit Office in 1971, working in the Napier, Palmerston North, Timaru and Wellington offices before becoming assistant Auditor-General, Local Government, in 1990.

In 2000, he was appointed Deputy Auditor-General and, in May 2002, became Controller and Auditor-General.


Kevin Brady

* A widower with five children, the 58-year-old lives in the Wellington suburb of Tawa.

* Greyhound racing fan and keen lawn bowler.

* Became Controller and Auditor-General in 2002 - a job that saw him responsible for auditing public bodies and reporting findings to Parliament.

- Additional reporting NZPA