Interview with Alan Spencer

Interview with Alan Spencer, born Crayford, Kent, 24 January 1939. Talks about his family background and early childhood during World War II in southeast London and Cheshire. Explains his early interest in geography and travel - by bicycle in Britain and by motorcycle in New Zealand. Refers to meeting his wife Jan Gash in 1962 through a church group, marrying in 1964, and their three children.

Mentions getting a job as an audit clerk in a London accountancy firm after leaving school, and deciding to emigrate to New Zealand to avoid national service. Discusses being accepted for a public service assisted immigrant scheme and being allocated to the Audit Department when he arrived in Wellington. Describes working in the Credit Section and then briefly in Public Accounts before going to the New Plymouth District Office and later to Invercargill. Talks about the culture in the Department and about living in boarding houses. Discusses the work of district offices, the travel involved, and auditing local bodies. Talks about returning to Head Office, Wellington as an assistant auditor in the Local Bodies Branch in 1967, working with legislation, particularly the Local Authorities (Members' Interests) Act, and being introduced to the reporting side of the Office. Mentions moving to the Public Accounts Section in 1972, and explains the 'Controller' function of the Auditor-General. Refers to a secondment to Treasury for two years to design a new centralised government accounting system - a computerised system that required departments to take more responsibility for their accounting. Mentions that a large part of his work of the last 20 years of his career was report writing - including the Annual Report to Parliament. Discusses auditors-general in his time and refers to the restructuring of the department under Jeff Chapman into policy and operational arms. Mentions the Public Audit Act 2001 and attempts by Treasury and some members of parliament to reduce the role of the Office. Discusses controversies over members of parliaments' priviledges and advertising by government agencies, referring to the fact that the Auditor-General can only report and has no power of enforcement.

Interviewer(s) - Susan Fowke

Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-015410, OHC-015411, OHC-015412, OHC-015413

Quantity: 1 printed abstract(s). 4 C60 cassette(s). 1 interview(s). 3.29 Hours and minutes Duration.

Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-5586.

Colour and B&W portraits

Search dates: 1939 - 1958 - 2006 - 2004

Original recordings not available for playback. Surrogate copies will be provided.