Far North on track to accreditation

The Far North District Council was well on track to accreditation as a Building Consent Authority (BCA), Regulatory & Customer Services General Manager Patrick Schofield said today.

The original date by which all councils were required to be accredited was the 29th of November 2007. However the government had now moved that date to June 2008.

“Recent publicity saying a number of councils are not up with the play in meeting accreditation requirements is basically nonsense. The fact is the auditing agency for the Department of Building & Housing, International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ), simply does not have the people available to complete the audits of all Councils in New Zealand by the end of November.

“Just how quickly councils will reach accreditation depends on the luck of the draw in terms of the department’s auditing schedule,” he said.

“In the building section the Far North is currently on track with consent processing times to comply with accreditation requirements under the Building Act 2004. We are going to need more qualified staff to follow the new consent processes and will be employing these people as the new requirements are progressively introduced,” he said.

Although the building division was ready now, the earliest IANZ could schedule an audit was December. It was expected the department would be fully accredited as a Building Consent Authority as soon as the audit took place.