Not a great deal in Hervey Bay or anywhere else by the looks of it.
Over here (opens in a new window)on Bring Back Strewth several people are reporting that there’s a great deal of unhappiness in the ranks of the staff of the Fraser Coast Regional Council and people are being shown the door. Yet, as Jim McKellar reports below, the council is claiming that it can’t spend it’s capital works budget because it lacks the staff.
How can you not have the staff when three councils were amalgamated to for the Fraser Coast Regional Council? Maybe it’s time that our elected representatives who supposedly run the council actually started earning the exhorbitant salaries we’re paying them!
FCRC Capital Non-Works Budget
A major plank in the FCRC response to the global economic crisis was the bringing forward of over $70 million of capital works to provide its own stimulus to our local economy. With the financial year drawing to a close it is timely to examine the Councils performance in delivering these works.
The latest figures available are for Year To Date (YTD) at the end of April and they do not make encouraging reading. The financial report shows a Capital Works YTD budget of $70.2 million but actual expenditure of only $22.5 million.
The reason the FCRC has given for the massive shortfall in expenditure is the lack of availability of specialist engineering support. But closer examination of the budget does not bear this out as a reasonable excuse. Let me explain.
Organizational Services, one department in the FCRC, had a YTD Capital budget of $5.8 million but has only used $1.3 million. Their Capital Works program consists of administration building upgrades, computer network equipment and the consolidation of the former councils’ records into one homogenous set of administration systems. It should be noted that Hervey Bay and Maryborough are still not using the same computer systems for financial recording despite this being a priority. How has this budget been effected by the shortage of engineers.
Community Services are responsible for things that directly effect the quality of life in the Fraser Coast. These include our parks, libraries, community buildings and boat ramps. The Community Service Capital Works budget YTD was $13.7 million but they have managed only $3.2 million of improvements to our community infrastructure. It would be fair to assume that most of the engineering work required for work in our parks should be able to be completed by ‘in house’ engineering staff. If they are still there.
Which leaves external services with a YTD Capital budget of $52 million and an expenditure of $17.5 million. It is safe to assume that this is the area hardest hit by the engineer shortage. But only $20 million of the $52 million was for road projects that require specialist engineers. The remainder is for buildings, risk management studies, waste transfer stations and similar projects.
While it is true that most of these projects can and will be rolled over into next year it leaves two major problems. Firstly, we are now one more year behind in our program of Capital Asset renewal. If we were unable to complete more than one third of the program this year how is the FCRC going to do it all next year as well as complete that year’s program as well. It won’t be done and our community assets will continue to deteriorate.
Secondly, the FCRC still has $47.5 million in its coffers that was supposed to have been injected into the local economy generating a much greater flow-on through the community. A stimulus that would have benefited many people in these difficult times. Are our Councillors really doing the best job they can or are some along for the free ride.
Jim MacKellar
15.06.09
