Council will not be releasing the letter sent by the Audit Office to the Minister for Local Government to the public, as called for by Councillor Matt Brown yesterday [Brown calls for release of Audit Office letter].

“I believe the letter should be in the public domain eventually, but it is inappropriate to release it at this stage,” says Mayor Neil Reilly.

He believes Tuesday’s Council Meeting showed a commitment to urgency by the councillors.

“It was a real decision to move ahead, with a financial workshop to be held for councillors by the end of August [to assist their understanding of the situation and the corrective options] and giving delegated authority to the CEO [to establish the value and timeframe of possible property sales].

“The problems are big, but not insurmountable.

“There is not anything we can do about it that can be a quick fix, apart from being open and making sure we keep in close contact with the Minister, the Audit Office, TCorp and the Office for Local Government.

“Now is the time for action.

“We know what the consequences are going to be if we don’t keep moving forward.

“There is a great positivity out of some of the decisions we took at the August Meeting.”

The seriousness of the cash flow situation was emphasised by the Meeting hearing of the use of restricted reserves to provide operational cashflow, unknown to the CEO and without the authorisation from Council. The non-adherence to the policy saw a total of $4.8 million of internal restricted reserves used without authorisation in April, June and July.

The Meeting authorised the use retrospectively.

Council is now waiting for a response to the letter from the Minister, Wendy Tuckerman [Council: waiting to hear from the Minister].