What a tough few weeks for all us due to errors from the Finance Team at the NPDC.
What a tough few weeks for all us due to errors from the Finance Team at the NPDC.
The afternoon meeting last Tuesday at the NPDC was to put through voting by the Mayor and Councillors so rates bills could be mailed out to all the Ratepayers – with the correct information and rates amount on them.
It was great to see many of our supporters at that meeting wearing our T-Shirts – with our “respect my rates” message. And it was great to see this acknowledged in the RNZ article about the meeting - which is attached.
A few days ago when we told you about the GST mistake, then the 12.8% increase error, we wrote how this can only happen with a lack of expertise with the people working in these jobs in Finance at the NPDC.
We note in the RNZ article, mention is made of the external Simpson Grierson review specifically mentioning the lack of Financial Reporting and Modelling capability in the NPDC Finance Team.
From RNZ:
“An external Simpson Grierson review, which ran concurrently with the internal investigation, found council lacked financial reporting and modelling capability which "strongly suggests a need for training, and possibly recruitment / restructure and training".
It doesn’t give a ratepayer a whole lot of confidence when the CEO of the NPDC, Gareth Green, is using a plane crash analogy to how the Finance Team came up with these errors.
From RNZ:
"Just like in the airline sector a plane doesn't crash because one engine stops, it does when a number of things line up and we had a number of things lining up here which created this issue."
A couple of years ago Gareth Green spearheaded a restructure at the NPDC. We noted at the time several very experienced people left the NPDC as part of this restructure. We have to wonder if this set the path with the lack of expertise today.
And there is talk of another restructure with the Finance Team. Will the person making the decision be capable of making sure skilled staff are employed to replace the positions that do not have the expertise today ?
There has been talk by Neil Holdom, and another potential candidate who is running for Mayor, that the NPDC now needs to bring in another level of expertise to check financial recommendations being put to Council when they vote. A new level of paying extra people to check if the people employed in Finance have done their job correctly.
Absolutely, Totally, No ! DO NOT burden the Ratepayers and Renters with even more costs to pay.
Employ people who are capable of doing this job. Big salaries are offered for these positions – if needed bring in some qualified accounting and modelling people form the “real world” rather than just continue picking from a pool of people inducted in to the Local Government method of thinking.
This latest mistake with the 12.8% increase means a $3.1 million rates shortfall needs to be found in the next financial year. The council has voted to give all ratepayers a credit for the amount the total intake is short by. But, the $3.1 million needs to be recovered by cost savings, or by the end of the financial year the $3.1 M will need to be borrowed and added to debt.
One quick fix maybe ? Close Len Lye - $5 million saved ?
Read the full RNZ story here:
Posted: Thu 24 Jul 2025