Playford Council unable to explain why it paid $10,000 towards staffer’s uni course
Playford Council cannot explain why it forked out more than $10,000 towards a worker’s uni course.
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Playford Council is unable to explain why it forked out more than $10,000 towards a staffer’s university course or justify how the study benefited ratepayers.
An inquiry into local government credit card expenditure by South Australia’s public sector watchdog found the council misspent ratepayers’ money – and broke its own rules – when it paid $10,050 towards a worker’s Canberra University course in June 2017.
Auditor-General Andrew Richardson is investigating the credit card expenditure of all councils across the state and has already uncovered dozens of examples of councils not demonstrating proper use of public money.
Audit reports into Playford, Charles Sturt and Coorong District Councils have so far been made public.
The report in Playford showed the employee, whose name and position within the council was not revealed, started working at the council in August 2016, six months after he commenced the university course.
The staff member then applied for study assistance in June 2017, after completing the undisclosed course that month, and the relevant general manager and the chief executive officer of the time approved the payment.
The staffer, manager and CEO have all since left the organisation.
This was despite the council’s own policy stating a maximum of $4000 per calendar year could be reimbursed for postgraduate diplomas and degrees.
The inquiry found council staff were unable to explain why such an exorbitant amount of money was provided to the employee or justify how the study was for business purposes.
The report stated the transaction was made “without the advice of the finance team” and was only discovered by the team when the council’s annual fringe benefits tax return was prepared and the funding was reported on the employee’s payment summary.
It concluded the council “did not clearly demonstrate proper use of public money”.
“This was because the expenditure’s business purpose was not clearly justified at the time it was incurred; the expenditure decisions (were) not transparent as the records did not adequately explain the expense; it was not made in line with council policy; and it was unclear whether it was necessary and appropriate to incur the cost performing the council’s functions,” it stated.
Playford Council chief executive officer Sam Green described the matter as a “historic issue” and a portion of the payment was repaid when the recipient left the organisation, in line with council’s policy.
“The transaction wasn’t supported by the council’s policy framework when it was approved and wouldn’t be supported by our policy framework now,” he told The Advertiser.
Mr Green said the council had “implemented additional financial controls to ensure that these types of transactions are appropriately managed in the future”.