Selwyn council at 'high risk' of not delivering on its promises

Monday, 19 August 2024

An audit of Selwyn’s long-term plan says the council is at “high risk” of not delivering on its promised projects.

But council bosses say they are confident everything will go as planned because they have done their due diligence.

The results of Audit New Zealand’s review into the council’s long-term plan-2024-34 found all the numbers added up, but the council had left out information and was relying too much on funding and resourcing going perfectly.

Selwyn District Council plans to spend $1.44b on infrastructure such as buildings, transport and water over the next 10 years, a significant increase (110%) from its previous long-term plan 2021-31 of $687m.

Auditor Julian Tan said in his report there were “significant deficiencies in the council’s implementation of the project plan”.

Over the past three years the council completed about 72% of what it said it would get done, with the rest pushed over into this year’s long-term plan, Tan said.

Due to the council’s past performance, Tan said their “ambitious” plan was high risk, and the council “may not be able to secure full construction resource for these projects” due to pressures on the construction industry.

The council was also relying on NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi funding to help deliver on its roading promises, but the funding was yet to be locked in as the Government continued to work on its land transport policy statement.

Selwyn’s acting chief executive Steve Gibling agreed the plan was ambitious, but the audit was looking at resources across Aotearoa, not the resources available in his district.

The past four years had been tough on everyone with Covid-19 interrupting plans, inflation sky rocketing, and a new government agenda processing changes in legislation months before council long-term plans were due, he said.

The council’s chief financial officer Allison Sneddon said she and Gibling accepted there were some issues developing the plan, but every dollar was accounted for and the district’s construction industry would cope with delivering the council’s projects.

“We do have a lot of work to do as a growing region. What they’ve [the auditor] highlighted is a risk that the number is high, and do we have sufficient resource and skill set, capability, capacity to deliver.”

Selwyn is the fastest growing district in the country with its population almost doubling in the past 10 years from about 49,000 to 86,000 people. According to the council’s estimates, more than 109,000 people were expected to live in the district by 2034.

Sneddon said the council had spoken with industry leaders and gone through the plan with a “fine tooth comb” to make sure there were enough resources to deliver on projects.

“The consensus is these are things that we can deliver within the long-term plan,” she said.

Tan’s report also said the council’s long-term plan staff had left information out of the consultation document that was sent out to the public before it was audited.

One key issue Tan found was the absence of a $2m park and ride bus stop in the document, but Sneddon said a previous plan had the bus stop included so staff did not put that detail in this time around.

She said it was an oversight, and the council took on board the criticism that more detail on projects was needed.

Tan said the council would be charged extra for the audit because its staff did not hand over accurate information needed to complete the audit.

This was blamed on many council staff having never done a long-term plan before and using a system they were unfamiliar with.

Sneddon said there were issues with staff turnover, but overall the institutional knowledge was still there and the plan itself was financially balanced.

Gibling said everyone could be assured the long-term plan was very good“.

“It’s going to set our district up for success and we’ve now got to get on and deliver it.”