Governance Reset – designing a tailored governance framework for Ministry for Environment

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) engaged Allen + Clarke to complete a review of its governance functions. MfE had experience a period of rapid growth in responsibilities and personnel, resulting in approximately 34 different governance or advisory boards operating across the organisation. MfE was concerned that there was a lack of consistency or oversight of these boards and that this may be exposing them to organisational risk. There were also questions about whether the Ministry was meeting its obligations in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments.

Allen + Clarke recommended a hybrid approach to governance where a risk assessment would determine if an advisory group was ‘enabled track’ (managed locally by the business group) or ‘controlled track’ (managed by a centralised function). We identified clear triggers for each track and designed a comprehensive framework for establishment, operation and closure of groups with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. This hybrid approach allowed MfE to continue to operate a large number of advisory groups with confidence that risks were managed appropriately but without requiring a significant investment in a larger centralised function.