By Michael Giles
BY THE letter of the law, Section 100(2)(a) of the Local Government Act 2020 to be precise, the Bass Coast Shire Council must present its annual report in an election year at a Council meeting, open to the public, no later than the day before election day.
The annual report and especially the financial documents that go along with it offer a wealth of information including:
• Council’s borrowings, up by $3.7 million to $24.2 million or 32 per cent of rates revenue,
• The total amount spent on Berninneit ($31.941 million),
• The fact that ‘cash and cash equivalents’ have dropped from $45 million last year to $11.5 million this year,
• Employee costs, up by more than $2 million on last year to $35.24 million.
• Why council posted an $11.7 million loss (late arrival of $8.4M Federal grants and $3M assets write-offs, they say).
• How the council is progressing with its capital works program, including which projects are over budget, haven’t been started or missed out on funding altogether.
The documents give councillors and the community the opportunity to ask all sorts of questions about council’s viability and performance.
Last Wednesday, October 9, at a council meeting lasting 8.26 minutes, the shire’s administration presented the draft Annual Financial Report and Performance Statement 2023/2024. It came ahead of the presentation of the 2023-24 Annual Report and Fourth Quarter Performance Report (year ending June 30, 2024) at the council meeting this Wednesday, October 16.
Of course, many people will have already cast their votes by then.
The idea of Section 100(2)(a) of the Act is that the voters get to see a final report on the performance of their councillors and the administration, before they cast their votes, but the Act was written with the idea that “election day” is the fourth Saturday in October of an election year, Saturday, October 26, 2024.
But not when an election is postal-only, as most local government elections are in Victoria this year, so it’s a rort.
Please note, however, the Act says “no later than the day before election day”, not as a council officer incorrectly stated in response to the only question asked by a councillor last Wednesday, by Cr Ron Bauer, that they “must be presented to a council meeting the day prior to election day in an election year”.
In fact, the council and its administration could have presented the annual report and fourth quarter financial report to the public well before the voting packs started going out on Monday, October 7.
We might give the council a leave pass on the annual report, which has been tabled on October 18, 2023 and October 26, 2022 in recent years, but the shire has clearly delayed the release of its all-important Fourth Quarter Financial Report for 2024.
In the previous two years, that ‘Q4’ report was made available at the August 16, 2023 and September 21, 2022 council meetings, time enough for questions to be asked.
This time they are releasing the report three and a half months after the end of the financial year on October 16, 2024. Why?
It’s a question our councillors should have asked, among many about information contained in some of the most important documents of the year.
But this past council regime has failed to challenge the administration to provide clear, transparent and timely information to the community about almost everything, mainly because a coterie of councillors, led by Cr Michael Whelan, has stopped council from working in the sort of collegiate way that would have achieved the best results.
This latest, final failing, of a dysfunctional council is just another case in point.
