The Nambucca Shire Council’s engineering department copped the ‘hot tongue’ of the mayor at Thursday’s meeting with the tabling of the Capital Works Report on the roads program for the final quarter of the last financial year.
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Cr Rhonda Hoban did not hide her anger as she grilled Assistant General Manager, Engineering, Paul Gallagher and Manager Infrastructure Services, Matthew Leibrandt, as to why the annual roads program was not finished on time.
“You gave me a commitment that it would all be done by June 30 – what happened,” Cr Hoban asked.
When told that not enough time was left, the mayor said “Blind Freddy could see this coming … why didn’t anyone address it?”
Mr Gallagher said the schedule had been based on the promise of the contractor, however two mechanical failures and wet weather saw plans washed away.
“We let this one slip through and we are very embarrassed … we are continuing now and it will be done by December,” Mr Gallagher said.
But the mayor continued her grilling.
“Every year we are the last cab off the rank and every year that means revotes (of budget funds), businesses seem to serve other clients first,” she said.
“We are responsible for the efficient use of money … instead money has sat in the account doing nothing.This is the most important part of what we do – we need to show we are on top of this, that the schedule is well-planned and on budget.”
She asked why the hot mix reseal of roads was traditionally done in cold weather, which was less than ideal for an optimal finish and whether, if everyone was under the pump at the end of the financial year, the quality of work was sub-standard.
Mr Gallagher said that contractor invoices were not paid until staff was satisfied with the work.
Cr Hoban also asked why jobs were often begun and then left half done, leaving work to deteriorate – Bradleys Bridge was a particular case in point.
Mr Gallagher said staff illness was the reason behind the longer than usual delay.
“Normally we do the first part of a project like that and then let the road surface settle – in the last few weeks of June we had nearly half our workforce off due to illness.”
Cr David Jones moved that voting on the report itself be deferred to allow other councillors to examine it in detail, but that project revotes and under expenditures proceed to allow programs to be completed.
The motion was carried with Cr Hoban suggesting the next Capital Works report, due at the August 31 meeting, needed careful preparation, as she had also found loopholes in the spreadsheet figures.