Ombudsman's Complaint 'Premature'

December 21, 2014

A complaint over the Adermann Park issue is now no longer just wasting ratepayers’ money, it’s also wasting taxpayers’ funds, Cr Damien Tessmann said this week.

Cr Tessmann said he had seen correspondence from the Ombudsman’s Office that included details of complaint from a resident who claimed the South Burnett Regional Council had not engaged in meaningful community consultation before endorsing the proposed sale of a portion of land by the State Government.

However, the Ombudsman’s Office had noted that the issue had never been raised directly with council by the complainant.

For this reason, the Ombudsman had advised that further consideration of the complaint would be premature.

Cr Tessmann said Council had agreed to write to the complainant and provide him with the results of an internal review into the park sale process.

“Council has written to the complainant and given him a detailed explanation of what happened,” Cr Tessmann said.

“It is now up to the community to place pressure on these people.”

Cr Tessmann said if they were “fair dinkum” about saving ratepayers’ money they should accept the five-page detailed response they had received from Council.

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