DCC names new financial manager

Grant McKenzie.
Grant McKenzie.
The Dunedin City Council has confirmed a key appointment with the announcement of a new group financial manager to help ensure its house is in order.

Council chief executive Paul Orders yesterday named Grant McKenzie as the council's new group chief financial officer.

Mr McKenzie, a chartered accountant, has been the University of Otago's director of financial services for the past eight years, and was formerly the group accountant at Allied Press Ltd, owner of the Otago Daily Times.

His new role - which he begins in January - would be an expanded one replacing the vacant chief financial officer's position, formerly occupied by Athol Stephens.

It would also signal the end for Dunedin City Holdings Ltd chief executive Bevan Dodds, who would lose his job as part of the restructuring.

The shake-up was part of a wider reorganisation of the council's senior management structure, unveiled by Mr Orders in July.

At the time, Mr Orders said whoever took up the new role would work closely with the council and DCHL to ensure a ''unified'' understanding of the finances of both.

The change would help avoid surprises such as the multimillion-dollar shortfall in dividend payments from DCHL to the council, which sent shockwaves through the council in 2011.

Mr Orders said the changes also represented a move away from an older ''silo-based approach to financial management'' that split the council from its companies.

''It's clearly the case that one of the risks to the financial stability of the council is the ability of DCHL to maintain its dividend at current levels.

''It seems prudent risk management would involve bringing together DCC and DCHL financial management in one position,'' he said at the time.

Mr Orders, in a statement yesterday, said Mr McKenzie was selected from 28 candidates, both from within New Zealand and overseas.

As well as his accountancy role within the university, Mr McKenzie was a director of several of the university's subsidiary companies, including Foundation Studies Ltd, Unipol Recreation Ltd and University Union Ltd, and a trustee of the New Zealand University Superannuation Scheme.

Mr Orders said Mr McKenzie's ''wealth of knowledge and experience'' would be ''instrumental in ensuring the effective and efficient management of DCC group finances''.

chris.morris@odt.co.nz

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