An Extraordinary Meeting of Kiama Council has been called for Thursday 12 May for councillors to discuss in confidential session the results of a forensic audit into the previous five years of Council’s operations.

Speaking at the May Kiama Central Precinct meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Neil Reilly revealed that the audit is currently under embargo while legal advice is being sought on whether and how it can be released.

“Council is still awaiting advice on the public interest test from the Office of Local Government,” he said.

The report has been sent on a confidential basis to all councillors; the Office for Local Government; Council’s Audit, Risk & Improvement Committee; the chairs of Council’s Finance Advisory Committee and Blue Haven Committee; the NSW Audit Office; and advisors KPMG.

While not revealing any detail to the questioning audience, the Mayor said, “We now have a handle about what went on.

“It seems things have been moved around without councillor approval.”

When asked the question “Will anyone be going to jail?”, Mayor Reilly replied that Council will not be bringing any criminal charges.

He told the meeting the Office of Local Government has been kept fully informed of Council’s initiatives to improve its financial sustainability, and that he has met personally with Minister Wendy Tuckerman three times.

“She asked why we had called our actions a Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) [see Strategic Improvement Plan has full support], and I said that we wanted to make an improvement plan before someone else [the Office of Local Government] did it for us.

“Improvement orders that are issued prior to administration give a council very little time to enact them.

“Community engagement and strategic plans have no meaning, and there is no public consultation on what should be done.

“This way, we will have to make decisions about what to sell, repurpose or keep.

“The SIP is thought [by the Government] to have merit and the inference is that we are being responsible to do it.

“There are some things we don’t want to sell, and there are others we could get a revenue stream from.

“This way, nine councillors elected by you will be making the decisions.

“An administrator would focus solely on selling off what they could.”

Councillors will have tough decisions to make

The Mayor said the Government was happy that Council had engaged KPMG as an advisor on improving accounting practices, in addition to commissioning the forensic audit by Forsyths.

The Extraordinary Meeting will be attended by Ali Dench, the head of the Office of Local Government, to lend her support to the SIP and Council’s approach to date.

Other councillors at the Precinct meeting, Stuart Larkins and Karen Renkema-Lang, voiced their support for the SIP, with the latter noting the need to strengthen staff resources, particularly in the finance department.

The report backs up the revelations already made in February’s State of the Organisation report [see Council releases warts & all report] and the SIP.

The Mayor reassured a Blue Haven resident that their returnable accommodation deposits were safe, and guaranteed by the Federal Government.

The confidential Extraordinary Meeting will also consider a way going forward for Blue Haven, given the Council has asked for an assessment of the options to sell, lease or keep the aged care business.

It will also look to further formalise the role of the Audit, Risk & Improvement Committee.

“I have been very encouraged to work with the elected representatives since they were sworn in,” says CEO Jane Stroud.

“We have released the State of the Organisation and the SIP and we will have to update the latter to include some of the findings of the forensic assessment report.

“We have been very open about the challenges we are facing, and my job is just to crack on and focus on what needs to be done to secure the future.”

The draft Community Strategic Plan will be presented to the regular May Meeting to facilitate the development of the Long Term Financial Plan and the 2022/3 budget.