The Board will still have to assure themselves of competency of practitioners as required under the Act.  As to the audits I think the days of the Australians are long gone.  They no longer have the contract with the PGDB it was not renewed.  I believe there have been some audits in Taupo trialling a new system.  The audits done by Casey Services were easy to work around - gasfitters gone progressively better at knowing what the auditor wanted and being prepared for the questioning which was basically working through 5261 - and then some on site visits depending on how many gas certs you filed.  If the Board come up with another system which involves visiting jobs then I think this is a more thorough way to deal with checking competency.  A job is what it is, you can't "prepare" for it like you can a question and answer session on 5261.  If you follow the regs and manufacturer's instructions then you will get through an on site audit without any issues. 

I think it is reasonable that the PGDB do random audits as part of discharging their legal responsibilities - but lets hope that it is done by Kiwi firms this time around.  Mind you with the disappearance of the certs it will be interesting to see on what basis they draw candidates.   I also believe that if you pass an audit then you have been proven competent and they should stretch out the time until the next one, rather than have the bi-annual ones as previously done.  This will keep a lid on costs and target the most at risk.