Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher has defended awarding the council's roading maintenance contract to SouthRoads.
The council announced this week it had awarded a three-year-plus-renewals, $12.7 million contract to the contractor it has used since 2012.
In September last year, some Waitaki rural road users reported concerns with the quality and level of maintenance of rural roads.
And before last year's elections, Mr Kircher made a campaign pledge to improve rural roads in the district.
Earlier this month, the council declined to release a NZ Transport Agency audit report of locally managed roads in the Waitaki District to the Otago Daily Times as it was in a draft form and had not been discussed with councillors.
Nevertheless, council roading manager Michael Voss said in a statement the council was "confident we have selected the best possible outcome for Waitaki ratepayers''.
The council received two bids during the tendering process - one from SouthRoads, combined with Downer; and the other from Whitestone Contracting Ltd, with Fulton Hogan.
"The bids were rigorously examined by a team including the NZ Transport Agency, other experts and observed by two councillors,'' Mr Voss said.
Council assets group manager Neil Jorgensen said the roughly $4 million the council spent on its roading maintenance contract each year was just a portion of the roughly $10 million it spent on roads each year.
Further, he said that in the draft NZ Transport Agency audit report there were "no red flags'' and "the outcome of the audit wouldn't have changed what we did with the maintenance contract''.
Mr Kircher said he was not a member of the group that evaluated the tenders for the contract, but said he understood the council had sought the "best price'' and the "best non-price attributes''.
"There were problems with the previous contractor, there have been problems with this one,'' Mr Kircher said.
"I think things are improving and are better than they have been, I still want to see them better, but people do need to realise that we are getting a lot more activity on our rural roads and even our urban roads than in the past. And that's put pressures over and above the extra money we're putting into them.''
