Miracles do happen! Agenda items for next Tuesday’s council meeting are replete with surprises.
- First, there is the tacit acknowledgement that WE WERE RIGHT!!! The figures provided in response to a public question on bookings at Allnutt Park, have now been ‘corrected’. The problem according to Newton is that there was a ‘clerical error’. No apology mind you, just the ‘correction’. This would of course have gone undetected and unacknowledged if not for Cr. Forge and her question. As a consequence, one must also wonder how many other ‘clerical errors’ have been made and not fessed up to?
- The Drains and Flood report requested by Esakoff in late February has finally been pulled from the hat – it’s only taken 4 months.
- For the very first time we learn that the difference between the publicised budget and the amended budget involves over $1 million dollars. So without giving people the opportunity to comment on this ‘new’ budget, this has now come up for adoption by council.
- The GESAC allocations to McKinnon Basketball is also under consideration
Once we have had time to carefully analyse the numerous items we will report back in detail.
Glen Eira Debates 
June 24, 2011 at 2:26 PM
Congrats to this blog and to the residents who first spotted the lies to public questions. Now that’s what I call keeping the bastards honest.
June 24, 2011 at 3:49 PM
I don’t for one moment accept the excuse about a clerical error. With computerised systems this error should not have occured. The report also doesn’t explain why one set of figures for the year before were apparently correct and last years was so way out.
Well done GlenEiraDebates – keep on keeping on. If all councillors can’t be vigilant then residents will have to take up the slack.
June 24, 2011 at 6:32 PM
Congratulations for detecting the “clerical error”.
I have just read the relevant agenda item and am surprised at the magnitude of the errors. To blame 47 public questions “almost all of which required input from the Recreation and Youth Department” doesn’t quite gell. Anyone with any knowledge of accounting and business standards and procedures would expect that the information was readily available. That it wasn’t readily available points to inadequate systems and processes. This is yet another indicator that it’s time to change the audit committee.
Also, given that Allnut Park revenue was understated – which revenue account was overstated? Such basic info should be provided – will another public question need to be asked?
June 24, 2011 at 8:59 PM
Tricky dicky could be at it again since there’s only half a sentence provided of what Forge asked Newton. Did she ask anything else and if she did were all her questions answered by this excuse for a report?
June 24, 2011 at 10:28 PM
I’m far more concerned with the inadequacy of the flooding report than the bookings in a park. What’s been produced here after a four month gap is absolutely outrageous. No figures are provided to substantiate any claims, and those that are provided are simply labelled as “average” which distorts the true picture even further. This is incompetence and cover up on a grand scale. I’m not an engineer, but when a report asks what is being done and where damage has occured, residents should at least expect a far more detailed and comprehensive appraisal of what went wrong. Instead we’ve been given nothing more than generalities and assurances that something will be done in the future.