The Otago Regional Council has doubled its insurance to cover against the possibility of one of its employees defrauding the local body.
Instead of being covered for $1 million, it was now covered for $2 million and it had considered going higher than that, council corporate services director Wayne Scott said at a committee meeting yesterday.
''If we do have a fidelity issue, then $1 million is not going to go anywhere.''
The increase in cover meant the council was paying a premium of $12,619 compared to $8715 it paid last year. The excess was $25,000.
The council's insurance was reviewed annually through a broker and this year the council faced a 12.5% increase in premiums.
Overall, the council's insurance premiums had gone from $144,361 to $162,478 for the 2013-2014 year.
Contributing to that was a $10,000 increase in vehicle insurance to $27,319 due to a change in insurer to secure acceptable terms.
Mr Scott said he had commented last year that the vehicle insurance was cheap and it still was, despite the increase, given the council had about 50 vehicles.
Cr Sam Neill said while it might be reasonable, it was still a large increase.
