Your view: Council secrecy

Reader Isabel Ashmore wrote to the Bay of Plenty Times about the council's secret decision to spend $1.3 million on upgrading a computer system.

What do you think? Have your say on the issue by posting in the comments below.

Why did the decision to spend $1.3 million on upgrading the computer system have to be made urgently and in secret by the bulk of the previous council?

What's more, the decision involving ratepayers' funds did not go through the normal public budget process.

Surely to have to upgrade a major company's computer system is not a last-minute thing?

If that was the case then those involved in this aspect of the council were obviously not keeping themselves up to date. Microsoft didn't announce overnight that the Windows XP system was to become unsupported.

This type of secrecy is worrying and puts doubt into people's minds as to what else was decided without public knowledge?

I do hope and trust that the present council will be transparent with regards decisions made which involve public funds, and keep the interests of the people of Tauranga at the foremost of their minds.

- Isabel Ashmore, Tauranga