There have been more than 1042 responses to the potential Special Rate Variation consultation survey since it launched at the end of November 2022. Your council team has been hard at work answering questions from the community as they come through on our Your Say website and to our council records email.
Many questions and a significant proportion of community comments more broadly have been concerned with the Financial Sustainability Review (FSR), why we went with the FSR instead of an audit, and where to access the results of the FSR and other Council financial information and documentation.
Audit – annual
Council is audited every year – independently, which occurs separately from our own internal audit system. An audit is the examination of the financial report of an organisation. The financial report includes a balance sheet, an income statement, a statement of changes in equity, a cash flow statement, and notes comprising a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.
This process for Snowy Monaro Regional Council is undertaken by the Audit Office of New South Wales. The outcome of this years' audit can be found in the Council Business Papers from the December 2022 Meeting at: www.snowymonaro.nsw.gov.au/Council/Meetings/Business-Papers-and-Minutes-2022
Auditors cannot predict the future – the audit relates to a specific past accounting period. It does not judge what may happen in the future, and so cannot provide assurance that Council will continue in business indefinitely.
Beyond the traditional audit – Financial Sustainability Review
Councillors voted to engage AEC Group, an independent consultant, to conduct an investigation that went beyond a traditional audit – a Financial Sustainability Review. This review investigated financial information, asset management and council's workforce from pre-merger (three shires) to present day as one regional council.
AEC Group made several observations on finances, asset management and workforce and made several recommendations for improvement. These were adopted by Council at the extraordinary meeting in November 2022, with the full report available at www.snowymonaro.nsw.gov.au/Council/Meetings/Business-Papers-and-Minutes-2022
The information in the Financial Sustainability Review is a transparent account of Council operations since merger and the three former Councils in the years immediately prior to the merger.
The independent FSR showed that without an increase in rates and the implementation of identified efficiency improvements, Council would have no choice but to cut services and allow infrastructure and public facilities to degrade and eventually close.
The financial sustainability review has 24 recommendations, a number of those with multiple parts. Most are about making changes to be more efficient.
The problem faced by your council is that the overall amount needed to efficiently provide services is higher than the amount of funds available, so more investment is needed along with careful spending of what is available.
The Financial Sustainability Review has confirmed that there is a long term structural financial issue at Snowy Monaro Regional Council, inherited from the predecessor shires. We have been told that the issues we are facing are the same issues similar councils are facing – that is, we are not unique in the difficulties we face.
We have been told that for a long time the Council has not been investing enough into the community's infrastructure to replace what we are using up, creating a bigger and bigger burden on future generations.
The NSW Auditor General, NSW Office of Local Government and AEC Group have all said there is a significant financial issue and Council needs to start making hard decisions to fix the situation, which is what is being done now through this SRV consultation.
In addition to the FSR and the external and independent audit, the Office of Local Government is also closely monitoring our performance as an organisation.
The spending of any funds raised from a Special Rate Variation (SRV) must be reported in Council's Annual Report each year. This is non-negotiable and the community can have confidence that they will be able to see precisely what we spend any additional money raised through an SRV on.
SRV funds will be allocated to:
- Renewal of the sealed and unsealed road network;
- Replacement of aged timber bridges;
- Renewal work on the buildings that have deteriorated over time, and;
- Improving the asset management planning systems.
The consultation on the potential Special Rate Variation for Snowy Monaro Regional Council is open for your response until 11.59pm Sunday 22 January 2023.
