Council’s risk aversion cause of eye-watering consultants’ bill, mayor says

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has hit out at his own council, saying its aversion to risk has resulted in an "eye-watering" consultants’ bill.

His comments follow the organisation revealing it spent more than $7.3 million on consultants in less than three years between July 2022 and December 2024.

Mr Clark said the council’s low tolerance for risk meant elected members did not "run against" advice from management, and management used consultants to "justify" the advice they gave elected members.

"For me, personally, I think the risk should be higher. We should take more risk," Mr Clark said.

"Because at the end of the day, you’ve got to balance it out against the cost of these consultants, which are eye-watering amounts."

Mr Clark said the only way to change the situation was to tell staff not to spend large amounts on advice, and for councillors to accept the risk.

"And if we get it wrong, we get it wrong."

Invercargill City Council was approached for comment but did not respond in time for publication.

The numbers were made public on the back of a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request from the Taxpayers’ Union.

The data showed $2.58m was spent on consultants for the 12 months to June 2023, $3.23m was spent for the 12 months to June 2024, and $1.52m was spent for the six months to December 2024.

The document showed more than 160 companies were used during the two and a half-year period.

Deloitte topped the spending with more than $424,000 for work on reviewing rates, contract compliance, internal audit support and risk and assurance support.

Stantec was next with a figure of more than $396,000 for support with the Bluff wastewater consent.

— Matthew Rosenberg, Local Democracy Reporter

— LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air