Auditor finds five more deficiencies in the council's dealings
DSC audit
A new audit of Douglas Shire Council by the Queensland Audit Office has found five “deficiencies” in the way staff have dealt with contracts and other business across the past year.
The QAO report states some of the findings included incomplete contracts, evidence lacking on what had been declared about potential conflicts of interest and an incomplete and inaccurate contract register, which is required by law to be regularly updated on the council’s website.
“During our interim visit testing we selected a sample of six procurement contracts,” the audit report stated.
“Of the six contracts tested, two lacked evidence demonstrating whether procurement staff, evaluators, and decision-makers had declared any actual, perceived, or potential conflicts of interest prior to participating in procurement activities.
“We also note that, for Example 1, the contract had not been formally signed by the supplier."
In relation to the updating of the online register, the report stated: “Council’s contract register is not complete and accurate.
“We identified instances where details recorded in the register did not agree with the underlying executed contract."
Other deficiencies included an approved contract variation not accurately recorded in the register - the approved variation amount was $263,035, but the register recorded the variation as $310,456.
“An incomplete or inaccurate contract register can: undermine transparency, reporting and effective governance over the Council's contractual arrangements,” the report stated.
During last week’s full council meeting, Mayor Lisa Scomazzon and other councillors downplayed the identified deficiencies.
Mayor Scomazzon: “We are facing these deficiencies head on and we are trying to make the best that we can of this council.
“This has been a vast improvement on what it was four or five years ago.”
Cr Damian Meadows: “There will always be some deficiencies.
“Certainly in the period of time I have been on council this is a marked improvement from where we were two years ago.”
Cr Michael Rees: “When I see the word deficiency I freak out, but then I found out, contextually, there are different types of deficiencies.
“It’s very hard for a council not to have some sort of deficiency.
“We’re most certainly heading in the right direction.”
Cr Abigail Noli: “Basically the Queensland audit office aren’t doing their job if they don’t find any deficiencies in the councils that they audit, so it’s quite normal, quite natural, to search for deficiencies so that councils can have improvements.”
The “significant deficiencies” relating to council contracts discovered by the QAO last year have been downgraded, but six previously identified deficiencies still remain in progress.
