Invercargill city councillors were told the council's draft annual report is still a "work in progress'' at a risk and assurance committee meeting yesterday (September 29) and it would likely be up to two weeks late. 

Councillors received an annual report update from interim group manager of finance Dave Foster, who explained that due to complications from COVID-19, resources at the council had been stretched, putting the report behind schedule. 

"It is evident that there is still much to do on the report. With the nature of the Invercargill group, there are key facets of the report which require subsidiaries Annual Reports to be finalised prior to the ICC report being finalised. This has a cascading effect as ICC subsidiaries have subsidiaries and so that adds to the complexity and the timing risk for items to be finalised,” he said. 

Advertisement

Advertise on the Southland App

The funding impact statements still need to be completed, as well as the technical disclosure notes and it was also noted that there was still some work to be done around the full impact COVID.

The full report is now expected by the end of November for adoption by councillors at the end of December. 

Councillors didn't raise any concerns over the lateness of the report.

However, Cr Nobby Clark asked if it was possible to get a more specific breakdown of expenditure in the report to provide further transparency with his constituents. 

"I often get the questions from the public saying, 'how much are you spending on noise?', 'How much are you spending on consultants?'...and I can't answer that," he said.

Cr Biddle supported Clark and questioned whether this committee would be able to request that information from now on.

Advertisement

Advertise on the Southland App

Mr Foster said the risk then, would be "how far" that would lead to potentially unnecessary digging into council spending. 

Mayor Tim Shadbolt added in his mayoral comment to the draft annual report that this year has seen "significant achievements but also challenges for Invercargill, as well as for council."

"The community coped well through lockdown, and while the announcement on the future of Tiwai is a further blow, Southlanders will pull together as we always do."

Chief executive Clare Hadley wrote in her comment to the draft annual report that this year had been "a year unlike any other."

"The Covid-19 lockdown meant the organisation was forced to operate in a new way to maintain essential services, with many staff setting up home offices to be able to continue the work of council remotely. Our people – and our IT infrastructure – rose to the challenge."