Others

• NZFF Fund

• NZVIF

• REANNZ

 

1. CCMAU structure and role

CCMAU is a semi-autonomous unit attached to the Treasury.  CCMAU has 20 staff, and this level has remained largely constant since 2000.  During this period the number and value of entities monitored have both increased.

CCMAU provides services in the following areas:

• ownership – advising on strategic and tactical issues, investment and diversification opportunities, restructuring issues, and the impact of policy positions
   
• monitoring – reporting on business plans, company reports, performance against targets, and sectoral trends and benchmarking
   
• Ministerial servicing – managing issues and drafting replies to correspondence, Parliamentary questions, and requests for information under the Official Information Act 1982
   
• governance – identifying and screening potential directors, managing appointments and inductions, director training and governance best practice.

The companies we monitor

• 18 state-owned enterprises (SOEs)
   
• eight Crown research institutes (CRIs)
   
• two statutory entities (New Zealand Lotteries Commission and Public Trust)
   
• four Crown entity companies (New Zealand Fast Forward Fund Ltd (NZFF Fund), New Zealand Venture Investment Fund Ltd (NZVIF), Radio New Zealand Ltd, and Television New Zealand Ltd)
   
• four partly owned airport companies at Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier, and Invercargill (structured as council-controlled trading organisations)

• Pacific Forum Line Ltd, a Samoan-registered company in which the Crown has a shareholding, and Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd (REANNZ), a company listed on Schedule 4 of the Public Finance Act 1989.

Our structure

CCMAU has three sector-focused advisory teams.

• Science & Innovation (S&I): The S&I team monitors eight CRIs and REANNZ on behalf of the Minister of RS&T, NZVIF on behalf of the Minister for Economic Development, and NZFF Fund on behalf of the Minister for SOEs (all under Vote CRIs).

• Communications, Services & Infrastructure (CSI): The CSI team monitors 15 Crown companies and entities, and reports to six responsible Ministers.  These companies and entities include SOEs such as NZ Post and ONTRACK and other companies and entities such as Lotteries, TVNZ, Public Trust, the Crown’s four partly owned airports, and Pacific Forum Line.

• Energy, Land & Environment (ELE): The ELE team monitors 12 SOEs which include energy companies (Genesis, Meridian, Mighty River Power, Solid Energy and Transpower) and others including Landcorp and MetService.

These three teams are supported by a dedicated Appointments & Governance (A&G) team which makes recommendations to shareholding Ministers on board appointments for all companies monitored by CCMAU.

CCMAU’s modus operandi

Company relationships

The quality of our advice rests to a large extent on the quality of our relationship with the companies that we monitor.  Besides formal reporting, we have frequent interaction with Chairs, CEOs and CFOs and other senior managers such as the chief science officer or commercialisation manager.

CCMAU officials do not attend board meetings, although some boards may occasionally invite officials to be present during parts of board meetings or annual business planning sessions, if required, to discuss issues or to provide an update on CCMAU’s work plan or events in Wellington that affect the companies which we monitor.  Such invitations are entirely at the discretion of each board.

CCMAU visits CRI sites around New Zealand on a regular basis to get to know each company’s science activities in the field. 

Ministerial servicing

CCMAU would expect to meet with you on a weekly basis.  These meetings aim to brief you or to seek your view on emerging or current issues.  There may also be infrequent occasions when it may be necessary to arrange urgent meetings to discuss issues that require immediate resolution. 

Besides regular meetings, CCMAU will provide a weekly ‘State of Play’ report to your office, copied to the office of the Minister of Finance (in his capacity as other shareholding Minister).  This report will provide an update on relevant issues and events during the past week.

The current Output Plan Agreement between the Minister of Research, Science and Technology and the Executive Director of CCMAU for 2008/09 sets out the outputs that CCMAU will produce for Ministers under Vote CRIs.  We will provide you with a copy of the existing Output Plan Agreement, which you may wish to amend if necessary, to reflect your required outputs.

Funding

CCMAU receives its revenue through two votes: Vote CRIs and Vote State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).  CCMAU’s appropriation for 2008/09 is $3.690 million, of which Vote CRIs is $1.074 million.  CCMAU is also responsible for managing allocations from Vote CRIs for the remediation of contaminated CRI sites.  A separate amount of $0.760 million has been set aside in Vote CRIs for this purpose. 

Key CCMAU contacts

Murray Wright, Executive Director

[withheld under OIA section 9(2)(a)]

Steve Rich, Appointments & Governance Manager

[withheld under OIA section 9(2)(a)]

David Ryan, Manager – Science & Innovation

[withheld under OIA section 9(2)(a)]

Tina Walker, Senior Advisor – Science & Innovation

Shiromani Jayasekera, Senior Advisor – Science & Innovation

Bronwyn Woods, Advisor – Science & Innovation

Secondee in Minister’s office

CCMAU has historically covered a portion of the salary of a secondee from MoRST in the Minister of RS&T’s office, currently Joana Johnston.  We consider that this role is an important conduit between CCMAU and the Minister’s office, and we would be keen to maintain this link.