Field Audits, Office Audits & Audit Conclusions

LINZ audits survey firms to obtain reasonable assurance that licensed cadastral surveyors (LCSs) are complying with the Surveyor-General's Rules for Cadastral Survey, the Cadastral Survey Act 2002 and regulatory and statutory reqirements.

LINZ's audit methodology includes the use of field and quality assurance audits to assess the processes and controls used by the LCSs within their firms.

Field audit

Two cadastral survey datasets (CSDs) will be selected for field audit from a list of CSDs submitted by the firm within the preceding 12 months. The field audit will be executed in accordance with the Cadastral Survey Audit Manual. The audit will include evaluating the field evidence, testing survey dimensions and testing the adequacy of connection to existing survey reference or boundary marks, including the definition.

Auditors will use the Field Audit Checklist (pdf 74KB).

Future alternative option

In a future option under consideration, the survey firm will provide reports from their own field and office audit programme as an alternative to LINZ undertaking the field audits. Survey firm audits can be in the form of LCSs within a firm reviewing a selection of their staff or colleagues' surveys as part of training and quality assurance processes. Firms with multiple offices can derive greater assurance and value if their audit programme utilises inter-office reviews. Smaller firms may choose to liaise with another firm to provide peer review opportunities. For firms auditing surveys, it is worth considering any potential conflicts of interest.

Field audit point scoring

LINZ uses a point scoring methodology for field audit results to weight the respective impacts of critical, significant and minor errors. The field audit point scoring is:

1 critical error	= 10 points
1 significant error	= 4 points
1 minor error	= 1 point

The threshold for failure is set at 10 points on any one survey.

QA Process Audit (office audit)

The Quality Assurance (QA) Process Audit, also referred to as the office audit, consists of an office visit to the LCS's firm to discuss and assess the processes and controls utilised to undertake cadastral surveys and prepare CSD's.

Prior to the office visit, the office manager should complete the pre-office visit Questionnaire - Cadastral Survey Dataset (pdf 19KB) or in Word format (doc 32KB). The questionnaire helps LINZ gain an understanding of the size of the associated firm, staffing and quality control processes. This will assist LINZ to plan the audit programme.

The office visit will be conducted by LINZ staff, who may be supported by consultants. When using consultants, LINZ will discuss with the firm the proposed consultants so any potential conflict of interest can be identified and managed. It is expected that the office visit will occupy one day.

During that day the audit team will require input, for different lengths of time, from:

• the survey manager
• the firm's LCSs, and
• ideally field staff connected with the surveys under review.

During the office visit, LINZ auditors will:

• review the survey firm's quality processes, preferably documented, used by the LCSs in the execution of cadastral surveys and the submission of CSDs to LINZ
• identify controls used by the survey firm for the submission of CSDs and determine if these controls are adequate to provide sufficient assurance to the Surveyor-General
• assess any peer review processes
• sample files and determine if the controls identified have been performed correctly.

Auditors use the Office Audit Checklist (pdf 38KB) or in Word format (doc 44KB) or Rich Text Format (rtf 48KB).

The review of the quality assurance processes will enable the audit team to indicate to the Surveyor-General that Cadastral Surveys are undertaken and CSDs are prepared in a consistent and compliant manner prior to lodgement with LINZ.

While survey firms will normally develop company quality assurance processes, the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of a cadastral survey and CSD lies with the surveyor who certifies the CSD.

Discussions will be held throughout the audit with the LCSs as any issues or process improvement ideas are identified. These will also be summarised in a close out meeting where the findings and recommendations are discussed prior to the audit report being drafted.

Audit conclusions

Audit findings are prepared based on information obtained from at least three separate sources. The results from field audits are combined with office audits to form an overall conclusion. Final decisions will also take into account the audit team's professional judgement.

Reporting the audit conclusions

A draft report will communicate the results of the audit. It will be issued promptly and will include the audit objectives, scope, conclusions and recommendations. Before returning the draft report to LINZ, the survey firm should comment on the content and accuracy of the report and complete the management response section. LINZ will then issue a final report.

More information

For background information and more detail on the audit process, download the Audit Process for Cadastral Surveys (January 2007) report (pdf 138 KB).