Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii
The government says it is closely monitoring whether underspending on infrastructure improves this year after calling in agencies to 'please explain'.
Treasury reports showed a discrepancy between actual and forecast spending of $1.5 billion.
The biggest spenders forecasted $14b but only managed $12.5b.
Since September, the government's finance leaders had been calling them and their respective ministers in to explain the discrepancy.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said the extra information "now make it clear which agencies are behind".
"The Minister of Finance and I have stressed to portfolio ministers the need for accurate reporting and forecasting.
"It's early days, but we're closely monitoring whether underspend improves in 2026," he told RNZ in a statement on Monday.
The first focus was on Health New Zealand, Defence and Kāinga Ora because last year these three made up two-thirds of the Crown capital underspending, Bishop said.
"Reporting actual versus forecast spending at the agency and project-level gives ministers evidence of agency activity and performance - where there are issues, ministers can take action earlier."
The latest publicly available Treasury quarterly investment report, to June 2025, named six agencies behind the $1.5b underspend.
Kainga Ora was the worst, at half a billion dollars, while the Transport Agency, Defence and Health were all around the $200 million underspend level or so.
The Crown housing provider has been hit by a five-year delay in one of its flagship housing intensification projects.
The Northcote large-scale project, or LSP, of 1700 new homes - including landmark modular units imported from Vietnam - was meant to be nearing completion but is far from it.
The June Treasury report explained that Kainga Ora had asked around and reported back that "this delay is due to suppressed market conditions for higher density housing".
For the June report some data was missing, such as the ratio of agencies' actual versus planned expenditure metric around medium- and high-risk investments, so Bishop and Finance Minister Nicola Willis put in the added extras. From September, putting agencies 'on the mat' plus adding two new types of 'dashboard' would provide "a runway for planned expenditure and for Cabinet to get early visibility of upcoming fluctuations in spend".
Bishop said it was about getting value for tax dollars.
"Our expectation is that agencies will sharpen their pencils on both forecasting and getting cash out the door. We are monitoring progress and are optimistic we will start to see the positive impacts of this soon."
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