For the first time in years, the West Coast Regional Council will publish its annual report well before the statutory deadline. 

The council’s Risk and Assurance committee worked through the draft report yesterday with auditor Stuart Mutch of Ernst and Young (EY) in preparation for its adoption next Tuesday at the last council meeting of the triennium. 

Mr Mutch flagged two high-risk matters in his last audit: a rates mix-up in 2023 and a lack of solid data to support the council’s valuation of its main asset -the 66-kilometre network of flood walls and stop banks up and down the Coast. 

This year he had praise for the Council’s efforts to lift its game. 

The rates had been struck legally, and the Council had done the detailed physical work needed to assess the true value of the flood assets, to support its financial statements. 

It had previously relied on a desktop reckoning. 

The report noted a seven percent increase in the value of the stopbanks, from $193 million to $206 million. 

“That was a huge piece of work and a credit to the team,“ Mr Mutch said. 

The accounts were “a lot more auditable and cleaner” than they had been in 2024, when the council was still sorting through the “debris” of previous years, making it possible to produce the full audit report by next week, he said. 

That was no mean feat, according to the committee’s independent chair, Graeme McGlinn. 

“Given the election date of October 11,we’ve been really squeezed – all councils have- to meet the deadline of October 31, and many haven’t done it, so it’s really positive that the (WCRC)team has managed to pull this together.” 

Scheduling elections during a key period when councils were trying to produce annual reports was poor form by whichever official in Wellington set the dates, Mr McGlinn said. 

“It’s always been the second Saturday in October, but for annual reporting, the second Saturday in November would be an awful lot better.” 

The auditors picked up one accounting error, dating back to 2021: an infrastructure advance of $658,000 from NZTA had been recognized as revenue but should have been held in the balance sheet till the job was done. In the event, the project was cancelled and the funds are being returned. 

“The correct accounting treatment is to reverse the revenue in this Annual Report,” the council’s Corporate Services manager Peter Miller told LDR. 

“There were a number of vacancies in our finance team at the time. “ 

The Long Term Plan expects the council to return to a budget surplus in two years’ time. 

Council chair Peter Haddcok said if the council had not made the correction, it would have recorded a small surplus this year. 

“If you look back at financial year 2021-22 you can see how it happened. That annual report shows significant loss of staff - 12% of total full-time equivalent jobs – meaning Council lost significant knowledge. It confirms why we needed to rebuild staff numbers and expertise.” 

The report shows the council now employs the full time equivalent of 105 staff. 

As well as tracking the finances, annual reports measure a council’s performance against targets set in the Long-Term Plan.

Buller councillor Chris Coll noted the council had marked some of its goals as ‘not achieved’ but this was unfair, he said.

The council had to comply with national rules for freshwater and natural hazards – but this year it could not because the Government had not released National Policy Statements on either. 

“It looks like a ‘fail’ and it’s not, if we can’t deliver because of central government processes.” 

WCRC chief executive Darryl Lew said the explanation in the report would be changed to reflect that.

Deputy Council chair Brett Cummings - who has been critical of the council's resource consent performance in the past, paid tribute to Mr Lew and the staff for getting the council back on track.

"In the six years I’ve been here, this is the best audit we’ve had … I remember sitting here four years ago and it was just chaos. Everything was getting extended and Stuart’s (the auditor’s) bill was through the roof. Thanks to the staff for making this so painless for us as councillors.” 

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

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