The Dunedin City Council is taking another look at its troubled lines company Aurora.
Council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose announced today it had commissioned a consultancy company to carry out a follow-up report to check on Aurora's progress implementing sweeping changes recommended by Deloitte in 2016.
The recommendations by Deloitte - which included splitting from sister company Delta which it has done - came in the wake of accusations it had let its assets, including power poles, become dangerously decayed.
Aurora is now planning to spend nearly $750 million upgrading its network over the next decade.
Dunedin City Holdings Ltd chairman Keith Cooper told councillors earlier this year Aurora is forecast to lose $33.8 million over the next two years.
Dr Bidrose said the purpose of the report was to provide an independent assessment of Aurora’s progress in implementing the recommendations of the 2016 review.
These recommendations in 2016 were made to ensure the delivery of a future-proofed and safe network.
“It is time for an independent update.
"As we are preparing induction materials for a new mayor and councillors, we want to provide them with independently verified and up to date information about the current state of the company and its processes.
"This is necessary for the council to have confidence that the company is in good shape, particularly given the future asset investment that is planned.
"A number of allegations about the company’s operations continue to be made in public, and these will also be examined” she said.
Toby Stevenson from consultancy Sapere, an economist with 35 years’ experience in strategic risk management has been appointed to do the work.
Mr Stevenson was responsible for the trading and risk management in the electricity market at Contact Energy from 1996 to 2003) and a member of the Ministerial Review of Electricity Market Performance in New Zealand conducted in 2009 – 2010.
Mr Stevenson is due to begin the work early in November.
An earlier follow-up review was conducted by Deloitte in 2018.
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Maybe the DCC can sell some of its out of town assets? to cover the costs, why not all of them? instead of jacking up our rates to pay for someones' poor planning, including eg. spending the cash pot ($80m on the white elephant) and borrowing ever larger sums for the white elephant ($220m) just to mention one. Or others; cycle paths, a bridge to nowhere, Sammys, parklets, micro parks, etc. Prioritise core services, not nice to haves, but that is asking a lot from a tax and spend crowd.