Invercargill's mayor had to backtrack on his threats not to sign off on the council’s annual report as it could trigger a "tsunami of issues".
During an extraordinary risk and assurance committee meeting on Tuesday morning, councillors discussed the adoption of its 2021-22 annual report, which had been delayed for about five months.
Mayor Nobby Clark had already voiced his disappointment with Audit New Zealand’s delays and processes.
On Tuesday morning, he indicated to his fellow colleagues that he was considering not signing the report’s compliance statement due to Audit New Zealand’s performance through the audit process.
"I just want to be upfront about that, some of my colleagues already know I’m going to take that position. It seems to me it’s the only tool that’s available to me at the moment."
Risk and assurance chairman Bruce Robertson strongly advised him not to employ this strategy and asked Mr Clark to give them a meeting about it before the full council meeting, which would be held later the same day.
At that meeting, mayor Clark then said he had held conversations with Mr Robertson as well with Audit New Zealand director Dereck Ollsson and executive director Stephen Walker about the matter.
He decided to follow the process suggested by Mr Robertson as it could bring further issues to his council.
"My initial position was that I would not sign the annual audited report and [it] has to go away — and that would trigger a whole tsunami of issues, including a report from the Auditor-general to the Parliament."
In 2020 the Department of Internal Affairs wrote to the council, raising concerns around the council’s governance and internal conflicts.
Since then, it has been working to improve its processes and an independent report about the matter was welcomed by the DIA that stated it was taking the right steps to address their concerns.
At Tuesday’s afternoon meeting, Mr Clark said senior staff and Audit NZ representatives had worked through the issues, but highlighted that he still felt disappointed about the delays.
"[It has been] not a good experience for the last 12 months and to be taken that many months is not good. They agreed to do better next year."
The councillors agreed unanimously to sign off on the report.
