There are "substantial issues'' within the Queenstown Lakes District Council's building control department and the Crown entity responsible for building control authority accreditation has "significant concerns''.
Council planning and development general manager Tony Avery said yesterday International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) had issued 10 "corrective action requests'' and four "strong recommendations'' to the council following its most recent audit, on March 30 and April 1.
Some of the criticisms related to internal record-keeping, including issuing code of compliance certificates when records indicated insufficient information had been received to justify their issue; "generally minimal recording'' of inspection decisions; inconsistent recording of the reasons for processing decisions - varying between "good reasons'' and "no reasons being recorded''.
There had been "several examples'' of inspections carried out by two new staff members without direct supervision before they had their competency assessed.
Competence reviews were overdue for two staff.
Staff training plans had not been recorded, planned training had not been provided and there were "no records'' of monitoring the effectiveness of training.
Further, professional development was not consistently recorded and "the procedure for supervision had not been followed''.
A report prepared by Mr Avery ahead of an extraordinary full council meeting tomorrow to discuss the failings and council's planned response, said "sustained action'' was required.
About five of the corrective actions were "similar to'' those identified in its last audit two years ago which "must be addressed immediately''.
"The number of [corrective action requests] and the fact that similar ones were raised last time highlights the need to take sustained action to improve the [Building Consent Authority] systems and processes,'' he said.
Mr Avery said the council was aware of most of the issues before the audit and was taking action to address the problems.
That included addressing the "perfect storm'' of staff vacancies, a national skill shortage and a local building boom, meaning the council was not always able to meet the statutory timeframes for processing consents.
A submission had been made to the annual plan for a budget to employ six new building control officers - or six people from within the wider industry who could be trained in-house.
The council also planned to work with the industry to improve the quality of applications received which would, in turn, ensure faster processing times.
However, IANZ chief executive Dr Llewellyn Richard said, in QLDC's case, that was "frankly ... not the real issue''.
"It's quite clear we do have significant concerns.''
While Mr Avery believed there were no issues with the buildings that code of compliance certificates had been issued for, Dr Llewellyn said without evidence, IANZ had no way of knowing that.
"The whole point of accreditation is that there is substantial evidence of compliance with the building code for all buildings that are being built.
"If the evidence of compliance is not there, then we have to say `well, we don't know, we don't know if the building's good or bad, we've got no idea'.
"We're looking to carry out a follow-up assessment in October - that's really unusual. It's quite rare for us to do that and it indicates a serious concern on our part.''
IANZ must receive council's response by May 20.
The accreditors will follow-up with the council in July before the October assessment.
Overview
International Accreditation New Zealand on QLDC's building control performance.
•Inadequate Basic procedures and systems.
•Internal audits.
•Ensuring enough competent employees and contractors, or that competent assessors were being allocated to jobs.
•Training of employees and contractors.
•Choice and use of contractors.
•Ensuring technical leadership.
•Assuring quality through management reviews.
Recommendations
•Update public information on how to apply for building consent and how building consent is processed, inspected and certified.
•Consider calibrating moisture meters in-house.
•Ensure it retains all records.
•Amend the procedure for managing conflicts to include all types of conflict of interest that staff may experience.
