Annual report - 2004 - Our structure and governance

Inland Revenue's structure and governance from the 2004 Annual Report

Our structure and Senior Management Team

Click on the image below to get a full sized view

Figure 1 shows our structure, reporting lines and senior management team as announced on 29 July 2004. Following Liz Sinclair's (General Manager, Strategic Design) resignation in February 2004, we undertook a review of the roles and responsibilities for the positions of General Manager, and our governance arrangements (discussed below).

The review recommended changes to the allocation of responsibilities to the general manager positions as follows:

• establishing People Capabilities and Governance, comprising Strategic Design and other relevant areas (see below). This new area will specifically focus on developing our people capability and overseeing our governance arrangements. The changes to reporting lines included:
  • responsibility for the Technical Development Unit and Complaints Management Service moving to People Capabilities and Governance
  • responsibility for Risk and Assurance moving to People Capabilities and Governance while continuing with "direct line" reporting to the Commissioner on integrity and internal audit issues
  • responsibility for Corporate Finance moving to Business Development and Systems.
• responsibility for processing centres moving to Service Delivery, while the design capability remains within Business Development and Systems
• renaming the general manager positions to deputy commissioner and Chief Tax Counsel, aligning their position titles with New Zealand 's public sector and international revenue agencies.

Appointments and resignations

There have been four significant appointments and resignations since our last annual report:

• Robin Oliver, Deputy Commissioner, Policy, has been appointed Vice-Chairman of the Bureau of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs. This is an additional role to his Deputy Commissioner position. The Committee brings together tax experts and officials from all 30 OECD countries to discuss tax policy and administration issues. Recent subjects of discussion include taxation of multinationals, double taxation, fiscal fraud and tax evasion.
• Liz Sinclair, General Manager Strategic Design, resigned in February after 16 years' service with Inland Revenue. She has taken up the role of Chief Operating Officer at the Ministry of Justice.
• Mike Lennard, Director Litigation Management, resigned in June after eight years' service with Inland Revenue to practise full-time as a barrister. Karen Whitiskie has recently been appointed to the position of Director, Litigation Management.

We are currently recruiting for the Deputy Commissioner, People Capabilities and Governance position.

Improved governance arrangements

In reviewing our governance arrangements, established in 2002, we wanted to ensure that they met our strategic and operational needs while making the most effective and efficient use of the time of those involved. The recommendations for our governance arrangements will allow:

• the Senior Management Team to focus on setting the direction, identifying strategic risks and monitoring performance (including risk management strategies)
• the establishment of a new governance structure (Figure 2), comprising two boards and five committees, which will deal with specific areas of management focus.

Click on image below to get full sized view

The roles of the two new governance boards are:

• Executive Board To examine longer term strategy, ethics and strategic risks to ensure that we are able to achieve our strategic objectives, and undertake regular reviews of strategic progress
• Management Board To focus on major operational issues that are needed to manage Inland Revenue on a day-to-day basis (for example, high-level business outcomes and outputs, department risks and considering climate survey results).

The new boards are supported by five committees that will focus on specific areas by taking an oversight role, providing broad strategic overview, and monitoring outcomes and performance.

The new governance arrangements will be progressively implemented during 2004-05.

Date published: 16 Nov 2004

Back to top