A paper loan of $267,000 owed to Queenstown Lakes District Council by Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) is not expected to be repaid.
The figure represents the value of assets transferred from the council to the Otago Rural Fire Authority when it was established in 2014.
ORFA was formed from six rural fire authorities and covered an area of some 4.2million hectares.
But it was disbanded when Fenz was established in July last year, merging urban and rural firefighting bodies.
It took on the assets, rights and liabilities of ORFA — and also the responsibility for fighting the district’s fires through Otago Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
Fenz owes about $1.6million to Otago’s five councils — Queenstown Lakes, Waitaki, Clutha, Central Otago district councils and the Dunedin City Council.
Last week, Otago Daily Times reported a loan of $285,000 seemed likely to be written off the Waitaki District Council’s books.
The report to Waitaki’s council finance and audit committee included a letter from Fenz chief executive Rhys Jones.
Mr Jones said it was the organisation’s understanding that all Otago fire authority loans would be written off by the region’s councils.
The committee voted to write off the loan.
Queenstown council chief financial officer Stewart Burns said: "While we are aware other councils are in discussions with Fenz about having these loans written off, at present we are yet to be approached with such a proposal.
"That said, QLDC does not have an expectation that the loan will be repaid."
