6 days Ago By Merilyn Vale
. The operating surplus before capital grants and contributions for the 2023/24 financial year is $38.6M, which is an improvement on the previous year with a $34.
8M surplus. The operating result including capital grants and contributions is a surplus of $145.8M – which is $16.
8M less than the previous year. Total rates and annual charges income is $421,528,000. Total user charges and fees paid totals $169,410,000.
Total cash investments are $799.7M and $249M once you take out externally restricted funds that are invested. Externally restricted funds means the funds are earmarked for certain projects and cannot be spent on anything else.
One of the reasons the previous Council got into financial difficulties was because the externally restricted funds were used incorrectly. Council met five out of six Office of Local Government benchmarks; it has more outstanding rates than the benchmark but was well above the line for operating performance ratio; own source operating revenue; debt service ratio; unrestricted ratios and cash expense cover ratio. The total debt was questioned and taken on notice by the auditor, meaning the answer will come back at the next meeting.
Cr Doug Eaton noted the backlog in maintenance. Council, while it was under administration, failed to meet all three industry indicators set by the Office of Local Government for infrastructure assets renewal, maintenance and backlog maintenance. Council got close to the asset renewal benchmark as a whole in 2023/24 but expenditure on renewing water assets was under the benchmark at 67 per cent.
That brought down the overall consolidated ratio despite the general fund and the sewer fund spending above the 100 per cent mark. Council also spent big on the backlog ratio. It met the ratio for the General Fund but not for the Water and Sewer Funds.
“The positive result for the General Fund reflects a significant investment in asset renewal over recent years,” Council said. But it still hasn’t diminished the backlog and isn’t spending enough to maintain assets, according to the Financial Statements. For its General Fund assets Council only spent 45.
15 per cent of what it needed to spend to get to the benchmark of more than 100 per cent. The Financial Statements must be lodged with the Office of Local Government and Council must add them to its annual report..
