Application information guide – overview

Introduction

The purpose of the information guide templates is to provide a guide for the Approved Organisations and the NZTA (state highways) representatives about information they may wish to consider, when seeking a commitment to invest from the National Land Transport Fund. The information assists the NZTA in forming a view of the degree of integration, priority, alignment and readiness, in order to invest with confidence.

The NZTA acknowledges that Approved Organisations/NZTA (state highways) develop programmes that deliver stakeholder and community outcomes and that each partner has internal processes, strategies and reporting requirements. In particular, we are seeking to align central and local government outcomes to ensure that the programmes and projects we invest in deliver value for money and contribute to agreed outcomes.

We wish to avoid unnecessary duplication. Therefore the templates attached relating to the NZTA’s core investment activities show references to source documents e.g. strategies, plans, business cases and reports. A high level description of the NZTA’s area of interest will assist Approved Organisations/NZTA (state highways) to proactively take these factors into account when developing strategies, programmes, projects and related business cases and plans.

The areas of interest outlined in the following templates are general but will form a basis for discussion between the Approved Organisations/NZTA (state highways) and NZTA P & I representatives specific to the activity.

Important points

Important points to note are:

Where the NZTA has supported a strategy and/or endorsed a package or plan the process should be relatively straightforward, because we will already have a comprehensive understanding of what is trying to be achieved.
Information that the NZTA may wish to consider should be contained within the Approved Organisation’s/NZTA (state highway’s) planning and programming documents, therefore no additional compliance costs should be incurred.
Approved Organisations/NZTA (state highways) are encouraged to ensure planning and business case documents take into account the NZTA’s information guide to assist in achieving a streamlined process for investment applications.

How information is used

Information that you provide is used to carry out analysis and assessment of strategies, packages and programmes/projects, where there is an expectation that investment will be made from the National Land Transport Fund.

Criteria that we consider include:

background (includes Strategic fit) to the business case being considered
readiness for funding/assessment
how well does the business case rate against NZTA’s Assessment Framework (Investment and Revenue Strategy)
confirmation of funding required, funding plan and source

risks, and
procurement

What legislation is relevant?

Administration of the National Land Transport Fund is specified in the Land Transport Management Act 2003. LTMA Section 20(2) and 20(3) are directly relevant to the NZTA Assessment Framework.

In meeting its obligations under the LTMA, the Agency may require an Approved Organisation or NZTA(state highways) to provide any information that it needs to perform its functions e.g. annual reporting and core requirements for the National Land Transport Programme.

Other relevant legislation is contained in the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Local Government Act 2002.

The Government’s strategic direction for transport is outlined in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport Funding (GPS) 2012/13 – 2021/22, informed by the New Zealand Energy Strategy 2011-21, Connecting New Zealand (a summary of the Government’s policy direction for transport), the National Infrastructure Plan, the Safer Journeys Road Safety Strategy, and the New Zealand State Highway Classification System.

Planning and investment principles

The Planning and Investment Principles page provides futher, vital information.

Scrutiny Principle (Section 96 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003)

Legislation requires that the NZTA must give the same level of scrutiny to its own activities and combinations of activities for funding approval as it would give to those proposed by AOs.

In making decisions, the NZTA will:

follow similar processes for similar types of activities
apply equivalent evaluation criteria
require an equivalent level of information to support an application
apply the same level of rigour to the analysis of that information, and
apply the same level of tolerance to cost estimate rigour and potential cost overruns; and
Have people of equivalent seniority and experience involved in the assessment and decision-making process for comparable Approved Organisation’s/NZTA (state highway’s) activities

A word about Transport Investment Online (TIO)

TIO is the official web-based system for submission, management and reporting of activities, RLTPs and the NLTP. TIO has been designed to avoid the need to replicate information that may already be contained in supporting documentation. This does not mean that the information is not important. Supporting information can be attached to Transport Investment Online

How to use the templates

The attached templates are designed to provide guidance on what the NZTA P & I representative is likely to consider and where it would expect to find that information. Approved Organisations/NZTA (state highways) can assist with the streamlining of this process by providing hyperlinks to key documents and, if requested, identify the specific source reference which addresses the area of interest i.e. name of document, page number and paragraph/table.

Click on the activity which relates to your area of interest
The questions on the left hand column will guide you through what the NZTA considers when forming a view of your activity
The column on the right is for indicating where the area of interest has been addressed
It is recommended that the templates are used as the basis for a discussion between representatives from the NZTA P & I and AO/NZTA (state highways)
A Minute Sheet template is available to record what actions/information are agreed

NB: When creating a new application, start with a blank template from the Knowledge Base to ensure that you always have the latest version.