Council sacked over years of mismanagement
Victoria’s Central Goldfields council is set to be sacked over financial mismanagement.
A Local Government Inspectorate report into the Central Goldfields Shire has found serious governance failures costing ratepayers an estimated $730,000.
The review found that Government grant funding could not be accounted for, and that employees had awarded contract work to themselves.
Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins said the council’s sacking was the result of years of mismanagement.
“The council itself has failed the people of Central Goldfields,” she said.
Ms Hutchins said systematic failures stretching over a 10-year period included the misuse and misconduct of land sales without adequate notification to the public.
Administrators will be appointed until fresh elections are held in 2020.
Ms Hutchins said the Government was left with little choice.
She said even after the report was released, the council did not take it seriously.
“We want to see real change and we want to see an end to misconduct in this council,” she said.
At a council meeting, resident Wayne McKail said the council failed the community for years without questions being asked.
“I think it will change a lot of things but I really think the recovery could even be 10 to 20 years it could even be longer,” he said.
“Because you've got a whole endemic thing, which has just happened.
“It's like a cancer that's gone right through the whole society.”
The council's chief executive's future is unclear too, after he was stood down, and is now due to face the Maryborough Magistrates Court charged with obtaining financial advantage by deception.