Tuesday 14 June 2016

Call For Council To Publish Contracts Register

The Whangarei District Council should publish a full list of all the contracts currently awarded says local advocate Chris Leitch.

A contracts register should also be available on the Council website, and include details like the successful tenderer, the term, the contract price, and general scope of the job.

Ratepayers have a right to know where their money is being spent, and whether it is being spent with local companies or international conglomerates like Armourguard, he says.

The Council should have a positive bias towards engaging local Northland companies so that ratepayer money is helping boost the local economy, Mr Leitch says.

Hiring locally owned companies provides the maximum number of local jobs, and wages and profits are much more likely to be spent in the local area.

Why Council awarded a contract held by Environmental Northland Ltd for 20 years to Armourguard even though the contracted price was higher needs explanation.

“If I was a councillor there would have to have been an exceptionally good reason for me to approve that change, and at the moment there doesn’t appear to have been one.”

Mr Leitch has made numerous submissions to the Council on its annual and long term plans.

Ends

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