Viewpoint – Spotlight on consultant spending

I hope you’re having a good summer. Most of us will be back at work and on the Coast people work hard to pay their way throughout the year. Likewise, there are those who have to be very vigilant with their finances in order to make ends meet. 

That’s one reason I’m pleased the Office of the Auditor-General has upheld a complaint from myself and fellow councillor Mike Lee relating to multi-million dollar payments to overseas consultants by Auckland Council executives. Australian firm Flagstaff Partners pocketed a cool $3.7 million for their ‘advice’ on selling off Auckland’s airport shares and privatising Ports of Auckland.

They were also paid an astonishing $136K for so-called ‘out of pocket expenses’ for which council managers could not produce any receipts or invoices, the investigation concluding they simply just paid up without requiring any verification whatsoever for tens of thousands of dollars in first class air travel, expensive accommodation and lavish expenditure on taxis and meals.

For over a year Cr Lee and myself have been trying to find out how on earth just a few consultants were able to run up such a massive bill for a limited number of trips from Melbourne. That information, however, was studiously withheld.

The Auditor-General said Aucklanders had every right to expect public money spent by council be fully accounted for, especially given the large sums involved. When I think of all the hoops we have to jump through for community projects and funding on the Hibiscus Coast, it was disturbing to see the nonchalant attitude of council executives towards these payments. 

During the investigation, it was also found council management had failed to follow a proper competitive tender process in awarding a $2.15m contract to Flagstaff, raising further questions for the Auditor-General in relation to ensuring  ‘value for money’.

All up, this affair has been a revealing insight into the corporate excess and consultant gravy train that exists in the higher echelons of Auckland Council. Similarly the political culture that defends and enables it (more prevalent now than ever and further evidenced by the complacent, self-satisfied response to the Auditor-General’s critical findings).

In the past, community organisations like Whangaparāoa and Ōrewa Ratepayers Associations would keep tabs on council spending. They would be scathing in instances such as this. Now it is only the occasional investigation by an independent entity that shines the spotlight on such behaviour.

It’s time for such corporate profligacy to go. Instead take a leaf out of the prudent financial book of hardworking ratepayers, ironically enough the very same people who end up having to fund these extravagant, unsubstantiated payments to consultants already pocketing millions from the public purse.