About $800,000 collected in general rates has gone unspent by the Clutha District Council over the past three years.
A new reserve account to better track council spending and the rates it collects will be recommended to the council today.
It will decide whether to accept the new accounting practice - and allocate the $812,772 it has underspent over the past three years to the general reserves account.
Money collected for water, wastewater and stormwater would carry over to be spent on what it had been collected for.
Until now, unspent money collected as general rates had fallen into the ''black hole'' of accumulated funds, manager of corporate services Alan Dickson said.
In 2014, the council underspent $437,027, in 2013, $311,147, and in 2012, $64,598.
The general reserve account would be recommended to allow the council to see what money was available for projects that needed funds, he said.
The Pounawea sewerage scheme ran roughly $280,000 over budget and required a bail-out. If the council approved the new practice today, this account would be used to make up the shortfall.
