Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said forensic audit on former council won’t happen

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said other agencies won’t allow the council to publish information that she thinks would be of great interest to the public.

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding has conceded a full forensic audit into Ipswich City Council to expose exactly how ratepayer money was spent under the previous sacked administration won’t happen, with efforts to shine a light on the organisation’s murky corners hitting a brick wall.

The audit was a key part of Cr Harding’s election campaign built on reform and transparency in the lead up to last year’s election.

She took power a little over 18 months after councillors were sacked by the state government in 2018.

Establishing the Transparency and Integrity Hub was the first order of business for the new council last year.

Setting up the digital Transparency and Integrity Hub to open up the books, including five years’ worth of retrospective financial transactions, was the first order of business at the new council’s first meeting in April last year.

While Cr Harding believed it had set a new standard for councils across Australia, efforts to reveal the exact expenses of former councillors and former directors of council-controlled entities have been blocked.

The council-owned company responsible for redeveloping the city’s CBD, Ipswich City Properties, was revealed to have lost $78 million in ratepayer money in a shocking example of how public money had been spent under previous administrations.

Consent from all former and current directors of controlled entities and all former and current councillors was sought by the new council so details of expenses, including their names, could be published on the hub.

Only former administrator Greg Chemello, former CEO David Farmer and current senior officer Sean Madigan did so, along with all current councillors.

Former council administrator Greg Chemello announced Ipswich City Properties had lost $78 million.

An application to the Queensland Office of the Information Commissioner to bypass privacy laws and publish the full details was rejected.

Earlier this year Cr Harding took aim at veteran councillor Paul Tully, who was returned to office last year, over the amount of money spent by the previous council on overseas travel expenses.

Cr Tully did not consent to details on expenses prior to his re-election in 2020 being published.

“It is beyond belief (the application to the information commissioner was) blocked under the guise of privacy,” Cr Harding said.

“It absolutely fits the public interest bill. People absolutely want to see that and I think it’s dreadful.

“All the data from those entities has been uploaded to the hub. At the moment it’s masked so you can’t see it by transaction. A nod from the directors and we could unmask them and have that published within an hour.

“Further investigation and exposure of past financial data would unfortunately require consent from former directors and councillors.”

Cr Harding said the cost of a full audit was about $800,000 but there was no guarantee the findings could even be published due to privacy laws.

Veteran councillor Paul Tully was returned to office in 2020 after the state government sacked Ipswich’s elected representatives in 2018.

The hub cost $200,000 to set up and about $100,000 a year in operation costs.

“In collating the data for publication on the hub in April last year, further information of significant concern came to light,” she said.

“Since being appointed, I have sought out and ensured when matters were identified or reported to me, that these concerns were referred to the appropriate regulatory authorities to assess and investigate.

“The responsible regulatory authorities have now assessed these matters and made their own finding and decisions.

“I have listened to the city’s residents on a daily basis, and want to provide assurances, that I have conscientiously pursued and exhausted all legal and financially responsible options available, to refer matters about past behaviours to the relevant authorities.”

Cr Harding believed the city “must move forward” from the mistakes of the past as avenues to detail them had been exhausted.

“From a good governance perspective, I don’t believe it is appropriate to now commit additional resources, around $1 million, to further investigate past conduct and behaviours, which may never achieve a successful or justifiable outcome,” she said.

“Relevant regulatory bodies, who had matters referred to them, have exhausted their own inquiries into those behaviours and have also declined to allow publication of the matters that I have reported to them.

“Other relevant agencies will also not allow council to publish information that I think clearly meets the ‘public interest’ criteria.”

Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.