Venues and events company to be transferred to ICC to save costs

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

An Invercargill City Council controlled company [CCO] which manages and operates Rugby Park, the Civic Theatre and Scottish Hall is set to be made exempt from the CCO and transferred back to within the council to make the operation cheaper and less complicated.

City councillors on the finance and policy committee voted on Tuesday to recommend to the full council that Invercargill Venues and Events Management Limited [IVEM] be transferred to the council and the company made exempt from the Council Controlled Organisation and accounting provisions of the Local Government Act.

Finance committee chairman Darren Ludlow said the change was initiated by IVEM and was based on making the process more facilitative, less complicated and more affordable.

Cost savings for the council would include $107,000 a year in audit fees, he said. 

'If we were going to have a separate company with all the costs associated with it we would want to be doing a larger scale of work.'

A report written by acting finance director Dave Foster says it's understood IVEM was formed to enable the different council and community facilities to be operated on a consolidated basis with the effect of not competing against each other for a limited number of events.

Retaining IVEM as a council controlled organisation is not warranted for the costs incurred, he says.

'Staff have indicated that being fully part of the council operation would not have a negative impact on operations. Directors are of a similar view.'

The management and accountability of events and venues would be just as robust under the core council operation and no benefits of the separation had been identified.

Council chief executive Clare Hadley said the report was taken from an accounting perspective and a second report would be written in terms of the operations of IVEM, due in August.