By WAYNE THOMPSON
The Waitakere City Council has spent more than $400,000 investigating two controversial issues that have dogged the present council - redundancy payments and losses over the failed waste-recycling EcoPlan.
Veteran councillor Janet Clews has labelled the costs an overkill.
She said much of the expense was due to the zeal of some councillors in cleaning up a nefarious plot that never existed.
"I have asked and will keep asking: What have we got to show for it?"
Mrs Clews said she and fellow councillors had gasped in horror when they learned of a $90,000 bill from the Audit Office for investigating complaints about the handling of 12 staff redundancies.
The report was made public last Thursday - along with a report on the same subject written by former Labour cabinet minister Dr Michael Bassett, which cost the council $13,000.
Mrs Clews said the Auditor-General's report showed some grave errors but no illegal action by either the council's former chief executive, Mark Dacombe, or council staff.
Mr Dacombe left last May with a payout of $125,809, dropping a personal grievance claim he had lodged after being unhappy at the way the EcoPlan subcommittee had pursued its investigation.
But the chairwoman of the council's finance committee and EcoPlan investigator, Jenny Price, disagreed with Mrs Clews that Mr Dacombe's exit package should be added to the cost of the EcoPlan inquiry.
Mrs Price said she had no regrets about being a driving force behind both inquiries.
They had revealed that the council overpaid $85,000 to staff in redundancies and lost $3.13 million in the EcoPlan affair.
She said the inquiries confirmed that authority must lie with elected representatives. It was not up to council officers to make decisions on matters that should have been referred to the council.
Mrs Price said the council had no choice but to pay the Audit Office's cost because it was obliged to investigate when senior staff made serious complaints.
The EcoPlan investigation had been sought by a council that was unhappy with a weak effort by the Audit Office in 1998.
A subsequent report by an independent chartered accountant 18 months ago brought the total cost for both EcoPlan inquiries to $89,968.
The EcoPlan subcommittee had since asked local government financial analyst Larry Mitchell to join its investigation and costing exercise. His bill so far was $14,201.
Lawyers' fees totalled $24,918.
Mr Mitchell said his estimate of the true cost to the council of the EcoPlan affair included $337,188 for council payments to advisers over the contract it terminated with EcoPlan in May 1998.
An unknown figure had to be added for the time taken by council staff, management and councillors.
Figures obtained by the Herald under the Official Information Act show that $15,000 was paid to councillors for attending EcoPlan meetings in the past 18 months.
Waitakere councillors horrified at payouts for inquiries
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.