Despite the fact that Central Coast council has had no elected councillors since October 2020, an audit of councillor expenses was conducted in August-September last year.
Councillors were sacked by the Local Government Minister after the organisation experienced major financial difficulties and has been under administration ever since, with new councillors set to be elected in September this year.
Meanwhile, current Administrator Rik Hart is virtually a one-man band in passing council resolutions as he fulfills the role usually carried out by elected councillors.
As a result, the audit was limited to a review of Hart’s expenses during the scope period.
Ratepayers will be relieved to know that the audit found Council expense processes “have greatly improved since the adoption of the revised Council Expenses and Facilities Policy in 2023”.
There were no key findings relating to Council expenses but the audit did make an observation.
It found Council was unable to provide sufficient evidence to support the yearly charges amounting to $13,457 on the usage of Council’s vehicle and fuel card.
“While it was not a direct payment made to the councillor,” the audit found.
The auditor noted that there was a high level of compliance with the rules and regulations.
Wonderful job being carried out by Mr Rik Hart. Currently NO party politics involved. I Hope the new Councillors remind themselves every week they are supposed to represent the RATEPAYERS not party politics.
Well Done Rik Hart.
the sooner we have an elected council the better it will be instead of a one man band, answers to who??
Rick Hart is raining in the excess of this terrible council why do we need expensive money wasting councillors to bring back the bad old days with real estate agents and people with their own agendas and conflicts of interest back again they all need to be double checked as they are not in it for the poor old ratepayers only themselves
After a period of exorbinant financial miss management of funds which if I am correct has been exonerated and to be recouped by increasing rate payers annual accounts. What can Central Coast rate payers expect? At this stage many roads around the residential areas are still in need of repair. Increased service charges on waste and water bills keep climbing. while we wait for council elections to be conducted in the near future. What can we expect? and why shouldn’t the residents of the Central Coast be apprehensive regarding future plans of expansion of the Coast’s population if what’s already here is not being utilized in main areas that resemble a ghost town. The need to improve infrastructure which has little or no room to be exspanded is most likely a issue that needs to be made transparent. If this needs to be exampled just look at the progress of Mona Vale Road. Political promises made to ease population expansion left idle for years. Central Coast residents deserve transparent achievable outcomes.
If one person can run local council why do we need to employ more?