RAINS ON CR RICHARD THOMSON’S PARADE . . . .
—HIS “TIMELY” INTERNATIONAL CRICKET LIGHTS MOTION
Received from Lee Vandervis
Sun, 31 May 2015 at 9:56 p.m.
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Sun, 24 May 2015 08:44:52 +1200
To: Sue Bidrose [CEO, DCC], Grant McKenzie [GCFO, DCC]
Conversation: Timing of announcement of budgeted $2m not spent – LGOIMA info request
Subject: Timing of announcement of budgeted $2m not spent – LGOIMA info request
Dear Sue and Grant,
The timing of our CFO’s announcement of the budgeted $2m not spent half way through our last week’s LTP discussions was independently questioned by myself, Cr. Calvert, and DCC watchdog Calvin Oaten.
This overbudget was characterised by Cr. Thomson as an “underspend” and by Cr. Bezett as “a fortuitous fund to dip into”, and was promptly dipped into to fund Cr. Thomson’s moved $1million for International Cricket lights.
I asked CFO McKenzie in the following break why he had chosen that time immediately prior to Cr. Thomson’s International Cricket light’s motion to make the $2 million announcement and he replied “Because I was asked to”, which raises the further questions:
1 – Who it was that asked our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?
2 – When did that person ask our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?
3 – Whose decision was it to make the announcement at that particular time during our funding decision discussions?
Kind regards,
Cr. Vandervis
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From: Cindy Ashley [DCC]
Date: Thu, 28 May 2015 04:13:12 +0000
To: Lee Vandervis
Cc: Grace Ockwell [DCC]
Subject: Timing of Announcement at LTP of $2 million Unspent
Dear Councillor Vandervis,
I refer to your email of 24 May 2015 sent to both the CEO, Dr Bidrose and Group Chief Financial Officer, Grant McKenzie.
Your request has been considered under the provisions of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) and the following response is provided.
I have repeated and numbered your questions to give context to our response.
1 – Who it was that asked our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?
Finance staff were asked by the Chair of the Finance Committee to get an update on the current year’s underspend. Earlier estimates of the level of interest underspend had been supplied to all Councillors on a number of occasions previously. Most recently prior to the Long Term Plan (LTP) this information was provided through the monthly finance reports that went to the Finance Committee on the 4th of May (page 4.6) where the underspend on interest expense for the nine month period to March was $1.606 million. In addition, the underspend was also referred to in two reports that were provided to Council as part of the LTP process, specifically in report 9 – paragraph 12, and in report 22- paragraph 10.
An update was requested at the LTP process as another month had passed since the March update figures had been prepared, and the Chair of Finance wanted to know if the April result could be made available.
2 – When did that person ask our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?
Because the Chair of Finance had asked if the updated result was available and it was, the Mayor asked the update be provided as part of the deliberations for that day so that all the Councillors had the updated information. Mr McKenzie then wrote an additional memorandum explaining the underspend in the current financial year, following a request from Councillor Calvert to Dr Bidrose for this information.
3 – Whose decision was it to make the announcement at that particular time during our funding decision discussions?
As Chair of the meeting, the Mayor asked that the information be provided, as it was available, in order to ensure that all Councillors had access to the latest updated figures of interest underspend, as had been provided in the earlier reports referred to in our response to question 2.
If you have any questions or require further information please contact Mr McKenzie.
Yours sincerely,
Grace Ockwell
Governance Support Officer
Dunedin City Council
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
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