Several Queenstown Lakes district councillors seem to have been left in the dark about an unfavourable audit of the council's building and consent department.
This week, the council said it had received 10 corrective action requests and four strong recommendations from Crown auditor International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ).
Failure to act on the recommendations and requests could result in the council's ability to issue consents being revoked.
In a report to an extraordinary full council meeting in Queenstown yesterday, QLDC planning and development manager Tony Avery said five of the problems identified by IANZ were "similar to ones raised at the last IANZ assessment two years ago''.
Cr Ella Lawton is a department portfolio leader for planning and development, along with Cr Cath Gilmour, who is on holiday.
At the meeting, Cr Lawton told councillors she "can't find any evidence'' of the 2014 IANZ report.
"How can we be readdressing the same problems two years later? It's pretty unacceptable.''
Cr Calum Macleod also appeared to be in the dark, asking "why was that not raised at the time?''
In response, Mayor Vanessa van Uden said after the most recent audit, new council chief executive Mike Theelan raised the issues when they were "first identified, straightaway''.
Action had been taken and the council had been informed of that.
"We have been [provided with] information on that by the CEO this time around.''
Cr Macleod asked Ms van Uden what "the inference from that is''.
"I'm not making any inference,'' she replied.
Cr Macleod said losing accreditation was "unacceptable'' but everyone was responsible for failings to date.
"We are the governance body ... we are the people who signed this off.''
Mr Theelan said the council had been asked to deal with the problems and "embed change'' in the future.
Ms van Uden said while the council had done enough to retain its accreditation two years ago, changes had not been embedded or sustained.
Mr Theelan told councillors the review was being taken "very seriously'' and council staff were committed to retaining accreditation and being "the best BCA [Building Consent Authority] we can be''.
Following a media briefing on Wednesday, the council emailed about 1300 industry contacts to advise them of the audit and the need for the quality of applications to improve.
Meetings would be held to discuss that.
The council was considering hiring a consultant to help implement the corrective actions.
Mr Avery said without the assistance of an outside party, "we are kind of limited by our own knowledge''.
The council had a plan for training and would implement it as soon as possible, while forms had been updated to ensure, in part, the up-to-date Building Code was being used.
"The target is Queenstown becomes the BCA employer of choice because we offer training, and you're exposed to a broader range of building ...
"When we get to that point, we may be more successful in our recruitment and retention,'' Mr Avery said.
