Interview CEO South Gippsland April 28th, 2020-Part 5

I asked Kerryn about transparency and the 15-year Capital Works program in the proposed budget

“Are you aware of how the 15 Year Capital Works program is being portrayed in the budget document for the budget this year and the changes from previous ways that it was being produced?”

“In terms of the way the actual capital program is represented?”

“In terms of the way it is presented in the budget document. You would be briefed on the document you would have been shown what was in it. Did the staff indicate to you, we are going to do this differently this year and this is a major change from what has been done in the past? Are you aware of the changes they made to the capital works presentation in the budget?”.

 “Yeah I am aware of that by the time I started the budget document was well advanced in terms of its development my understanding is the reason that we’re providing less detail in the further out years is because the reality is those years are very difficult to plan for their quite a long way away so we providing information about projected future funding at an aggregated level rather than project by project”

“Previous Councillors put in the 15 work capital works budget in so that people could see the detail and where council was going. Can you appreciate that people have no idea what councils now spending money on past the first year and there’s no way of indicating if a major project is wanted or not in advance because they don’t see it until one year away when in which case it would have already been worked on for a number of years and basically be ready to move and hardly likely to be altered?” 

“Yeah sure and look maybe there’s a middle maybe there’s an in between model which is having more certainty for example over two or three or four years and less certainty over future years which is probably a more accurate reflection of how advanced those plans would actually be. That said, I’m sure there’s a range of other ways the community can be involved in planning for that infrastructure aside from just the budget document so I think it’s just a question of getting the balance right”.

“Do you see any disadvantage in having the 15-year capital works program listed as it has been done in the last few years?”

“I think the possible disadvantages that it creates it presents as though there’s a level of certainty in outer years that there actually isn’t so it misrepresents I think the risk is it misrepresents to the community that there’s certainty about certain projects when as we know if there in year says 7 eight 9 or 10 the world can change a lot in 10 years and those projects may not be absolutely confirmed it even goes beyond the life of a current council so whether that be today’s council or tomorrows council but if you’re going out eight and 10 or 12 years there’s going to be 3 councils within that term have all got the right to change their mind about those priorities so I think it’s getting the balance right between the current and next say few years where there is certainty versus ten 12 15 years where there’s no certainty”.

“Could be transparency involved too?”

“Transparency where there is fact to be transparent about rather than project presenting something as though it’s a decision that certain when it actually isn’t, so I think you’re right it’s a balance.”

Editor Comment-see related article on Proposed Budget