Council’s CEO has been informed by its auditor, Deloittes, that its financial statement will now not be finalised until March.

“We submitted the Draft Financial Statement in October and the work was going well to be finished by the end of November,” says Ms Stroud.

She has since been told by the firm that it will not be completed until March, due to its Christmas close down and staffing issues, and that Council should apply for an extension for submitting its accounts to the Government until then.

“It is very frustrating, as not having audited financial statements prevents the business from knowing exactly how we ended up the year.

“It is very difficult to forward build a budget and work on the long term financial plan when we don’t have certainty.”

The State allocates clusters of councils to various auditors to have their books verified.

“There are 45 other councils in our cohort with Delloites,” says Ms Stroud.

She and the Mayor are writing to the Department and the Minister respectively to try and get the timeframe improved.

This will be the fourth year in a row that Council's Financial Statements have been lodged late with the Office of Local Government.