The report will also address whether anything needs to be done to reduce the risk to the organisation’s reputation in light of the matter.
At the beginning of this month the council issued a statement apologising for overcharging ratepayers in Oamaru and undercharging some in Dunedin.
The apology caught at least one councillor off guard — Cr Michael Laws blasted the council’s leadership after learning of the errors through the statement to media.
Yesterday, the council’s finance committee called for a report on the matter to be brought to the council’s audit and risk subcommittee.
Council chief executive Richard Saunders told the finance committee a "small error" in Oamaru resulted in 972 ratepayers being overcharged for transport.
It was "much easier" for the council to communicate that mistake, because they were telling people the council was "giving them some money back", Mr Saunders said.
In Dunedin, though, the council needed to collect another $220,000 from people who were supposed to be charged to maintain flood protection from the Leith.
Mr Saunders said during the last long-term plan process the council had extended the geographical area for the Leith scheme "indirect rate" which added another 13,800 properties to that rate on top of the 40,900 ratepayers already paying for the flood protection.
The council had failed to charge those ratepayers the new charge, he said.
Cr Kevin Malcolm called for the report, which included identifying "any necessary process improvements" to reduce both operational and reputational risks to the council.
"A mistake has been made, and staff have owned it, and worked through a process to remedy it," Cr Malcolm said. "The other issue that is in that [report] is the timing of the advice that we received, so that will also be an important part of what we go through at audit and risk to ensure that governance and our public are notified at the appropriate time when any issue does occur."
Emails obtained by the Otago Daily Times show councillors were advised of the errors by Mr Saunders less than two hours before the council statement was issued.
Council chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson said she supported the report coming to the audit and risk committee after the "absolutely gutting" mistake, but she supported how Mr Saunders had dealt with it.
