DCC acting chief executive Tony Avery.
Dunedin City Council staff charged more than $4.8 million
to 206 civic purchase credit cards over three years,
just-confirmed figures reveal.
The new total is made up of about $4.3 million spent on 166
credit cards, and $534,500 charged by the council's top 36
managers and four personal assistants.
The Otago Daily Times detailed the smaller spend last
week, but details of the multimillion-dollar spend have been
only just been released.
Council chief executive Jim Harland last week said he
expected total spending across all council cards to be a
"couple of million dollars, maybe more".
This week, he said staff spent about $4.3 million in about
26,000 transactions over three years.
He revealed the figure in a letter sent in response to a
request made under the Local Government Official Information
and Meetings Act.
In his response, Mr Harland said he would detail the spend
after the newspaper paid the estimated $8278 it would cost to
research, collate, and produce it.
The newspaper's last request was processed free of charge,
despite the draw on council staff hours, as he accepted there
needed to be a degree of accountability for senior staff, he
said.
The last request revealed the council had about one card for
every three full-time equivalent positions, one of the
highest card-to-staff ratios in the South Island.
It also revealed the top 36 managers and four personal
assistants charged $534,500 to council cards, and that about
$100,00 was spent on food, coffee, entertainment, and
drinking.
The cards were intended to be used to pay for legitimate
council spending, but staff had variously apologised for and
repaid about $7000 worth of questionable transactions.
One person no longer worked at the council, in part due to
alleged inappropriate spending.
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