2007/08 Technical Review Programme Summary Report released
Technical reviews of territorial authority building control units are one of the ways we fulfil our responsibility for monitoring and reviewing how territorial authorities and building consent authorities perform their functions, duties and powers under the Building Act 2004.
Technical reviews are a key tool to assist organisations to:
- enhance the performance of their building control activities
- implement appropriate systems, processes and resources, so they can carry out their building control operations effectively and more efficiently
- effectively fulfil their obligations under the Building Act and building regulations.
Technical reviews usually involve a three-phase process designed to help territorial authorities identify and improve their regulatory building control operations. They are carried out by the Department's Consent Authority Capability and Performance Group and usually take about 18 months.
Technical reviews usually examine a territorial authority's or building consent authority's building control operations under 18 broad terms of reference. This involves an initial visit and a follow-up visit about 12 months later. The final phase of the review process involves producing a public summary report identifying the main findings and recommendations, and the territorial authority's response to those findings, across all phases of the review.
Findings of recent technical reviews
During the past 12 months, the Department has carried out technical reviews of the building control units of eight territorial authorities. The organisations reviewed reflect a mix of small, medium and large territorial authorities. They were: Wellington City Council, Selwyn District Council, Franklin District Council, Waitakere City Council, Porirua City Council, Manukau City Council, Queenstown Lakes District Council and Far North District Council.
The technical reviews identified recurring performance issues, such as the challenges of ensuring building work complies with all aspects of building law, limitations in the collective technical skills and experience of building control units, resourcing and capacity concerns, and building control operational policy and quality control issues.
On a positive note, the technical reviews identified a number of improvements in building control processes in some of the territorial authorities assessed, mostly as a result of their preparations for accreditation as a building consent authority. These included a range of good practice initiatives, such as improved consent vetting practices (good filter systems up front to reject poor quality consent applications) and improved documented systems and processes to underpin building control work.
The reviews conducted over the past year also highlighted a number of recurring performance issues. In general, the councils assessed needed to:
- strengthen methods for assessing staff competence by developing or improving technical skills competency assessment systems
- strengthen the technical knowledge and expertise of building control staff by
- providing additional training and outsourcing specialist work where the requisite in-house capability is unavailable
- implement quality assurance processes (such as peer review and internal audits of completed work) at all stages of consent processing, approval and inspection.
- employ additional building control staff to ensure sufficient capacity is available in all operational areas to meet the demand for building control services. Most authorities remain under resourced
- ensure adequate formal policies and procedures are developed to underpin all aspects of their building control operations
- ensure compliance with the Building Code is consistently achieved at all stages of consent processing and inspection, particularly in relation to fire compliance, access and facilities for people with disabilities, and weathertightness compliance.
A number of performance short-comings have often emerged where these issues have not been addressed by building consent authorities. These have included approving building work which does not meet Building Code compliance (and other legislative requirements) and consent applications with poor quality or incomplete supporting documentation (for example, missing the necessary weathertightness detailing).
Many of the key findings reflect challenges common to almost all council building control units. Other councils that have not recently been reviewed by the Department may find the summary reports of council reviews useful. The technical review process and review findings may also prove beneficial to building consent authorities preparing for phase 2 of the BCA accreditation scheme, as there are many quality assurance recommendations relevant to phase 2 accreditation requirements. Technical review summary reports are available on the Department's website at www.dbh.govt.nz/bofficials-technical-reviews