June 3, 2020
Gympie Regional Council will examine all options to cut spending in the wake of a damning report on the Council’s financial management.
The report – prepared by consultants CPA Australia during March and April, and released on Sunday – disclosed a large number of systemic financial issues inside the council.
These included “poor financial literacy … a vacuum in senior financial leadership; low confidence in the reliability of financial systems information, budgeting and reporting; an absence of performance KPIs (key performance indicators); lack of a financial sustainability strategy; (and) a stretched, transactional finance function.”
It also pointed to an executive team “widely perceived as not being unified”.
CPA also found there was a “broad-based reticence to accept accountability for performance” within the Council and “a lack of visible consequences” for decisions.
Overall the council was ranked below average, scoring 1.7 on a scale of one to four.
The average of other councils reviewed by CPA was 2.2.
On Wednesday, newly elected Mayor Glen Hartwig admitted on the Council’s Facebook page the report painted a poor picture of Gympie Regional Council’s past financial management.
“Late last week, we released our Financial Management Review report to the media and our residents as we want our community to know exactly what our position is and the challenges we face,” Mayor Hartwig said.
“The report is an independent review of how we have historically managed our finances and, most importantly, how we can improve.
“The good news is we can only improve, and for those of you who have read the report, there will be many who are not surprised.”
Mayor Hartwig urged residents to read the full report, which is available on the Council’s website.
“Financially we are not in a good position, and we won’t be in a good financial position for years to come,” the Mayor said.
“We will turn this around, but it will take time, a lot of work and some very hard decisions from both Councillors and staff.
“We need to deal with the hand we’ve been given, which means that this Council is looking at all options on how we cut our spending, while at the same time increasing our commitment to our core services – our residents deserve to drive on decent roads.”
The Mayor said the Council will do this by looking at every Council program, service and project and asking “Does it need to be done now?”, “Does it offer value for money?”, “Will it support local employment?” and “Will it have a direct benefit for residents?”.
“If the answer is no, then you may see projects postponed or cancelled as we need to live within our means,” Mayor Hartwig said.
- External link: CPA Financial Management Review (369K PDF)
