www.autofile.co.nz
SEPTEMBER 2019
THE TRUSTED VOICE OF THE AUTO INDUSTRY FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS
Uncertainty over for inspection industry Regulator’s announcement means investment by companies across New Zealand’s supply chain can now move forward
T
he NZTA’s decision to retain its conflicts of interest (COIs) policy and bolster its auditing of the inspection sector means the industry can move forward after 18 months of not knowing what the future would hold. The agency has concluded that its proposals – outlined in its consultation document “managing the integrity of usedvehicle certification inspection and inspection organisations” – would have had a significant impact on the sector. It has now made a decision – “after carefully considering feedback and submissions” – to not overhaul the system because of the nature of vehicle ownership in the supply chain and changing it would have been difficult to regulate. Kane Patena, the NZTA’s general manager for regulatory compliance, says the original proposal to change the COI policy generated a high level of engagement from industry, which was taken into account.
Kane Patena, of the NZTA
He adds: “The feedback helped us establish it would be more efficient to introduce a wider range of improvement activities to protect the integrity of entrycertification decisions.” These include “refining guidance for managing COIs, stepping up our assurance programme, and providing more support to inspectors and entry certifiers”. Under the proposed policy change, the NZTA would have no longer permitted an inspection organisation to carry out entry-
certification activities for a vehicle if that same inspection organisation – or a related party – had an ownership interest in the vehicle or had conducted border inspections for it. “What this decision means is we’ll be committing to a more robust process for audits and reviews of inspection companies,” says Patena. “We’ll be engaging further with industry over the next few months.” The regulator’s “guiding principle” will be improving safety by protecting the integrity of entrycertification decisions and it will update notices of appointments to reflect changes. NZTA staff will now visit entrycertification organisations to better understand systems they have in place. What’s learnt from this process will help it develop an audit programme. The agency recognises it will need to change the date for new notices of appointments to enable its programme of work over the next few months, which means it
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