Delivery of the Dunedin City Council’s capital expenditure programme has slipped behind schedule and the chief executive says this is partly because of increased scrutiny from councillors.
The council had budgeted a spend of more than $83.6 million after the first five months of the 2024-25 financial year, but it was more than $25m behind, the latest report showed.
Deputy mayor Cherry Lucas asked council chief executive Sandy Graham about the situation at last week’s council meeting.
"It’s taken us longer to get things into the market, because of increased scrutiny and oversight," Ms Graham replied.
"There has been a slowdown in our procurement.
"We’re not going to be able to hit the capital programme this year."
She also highlighted factors such as ongoing impact from flooding in October last year.
The Otago Daily Times asked the Dunedin City Council (DCC) who was providing the increased scrutiny and oversight.
"The DCC’s capital programme has experienced delays for a variety of reasons, including the increased scrutiny of council budgets by councillors," a spokesman said.
"The additional requirements this introduces for staff, such as providing additional information about specific projects and spending plans, can contribute to delays."
Other factors contributing to delays included lead-in times for some Three Waters projects being longer than anticipated and there were also delays associated with resource consenting and procurement of Waste Futures projects.
Cr Lucas said afterwards a lot of time and energy went into determining the capital programme.
"I believe scrutiny by councillors is a good thing," she said.
"This is a $200m-plus budget and councillors should be asking questions about its delivery."
Cr Mandy Mayhem expressed some frustration.
"In my opinion, good governance requires oversight into all matters, especially budget line items," Cr Mayhem said.
Elected representatives had to deal with situations, such as regarding see-saws in George St, where they had little information about what the cost would be, she said.
"The councillors are the public-facing decision-makers and critics expect we have more knowledge of matters than we actually do," Cr Mayhem said.
"Professionally and personally, I find it unacceptable."
Cr Kevin Gilbert believed it was appropriate for councillors to delve into subjects.
"Surely, it is the role of councillors to be cautious, scrutinise activities, and ensure that the correct and complete information is at hand before making decisions on behalf of the residents of Dunedin."
However, Cr Carmen Houlahan said councillors needed to be governors, not "micro-managers".
"Some councillors have been keen to have governance oversight on everything, and some of that has stepped [into operational matters]." she said.
"While the intention might be good, the result is it increases workload for staff, creates logjams on workstreams and slows things down."
Cr Houlahan said refreshing council strategies had also increased workload and "in my opinion not achieved a lot more".
Cr David Benson-Pope characterised the matter as "inappropriate interference by two or three councillors in operational matters".
Cr Lee Vandervis said he was relieved capital spending was behind budget, "largely because the budgets are too large".
He pointed out capital spending was outpacing the budget during the previous financial year.
It then had to be pulled back.
"In my view, the DCC needs to be much more cautious and get better value for both capital and operational spending, reduce some levels of service, and significantly reduce staff costs that do not add value for citizens."
