Clover Moore ‘thumbs her nose’ at order to tidy up Sydney City council’s expenses policy

EXCLUSIVE: CLOVER Moore’s council has given a two-fingered salute to the state government after being told to clean up its expenses policy.

The proposal to allow Ms Moore’s own staff to approve her expenses has been slammed. Picture: Adam Taylor

• Lord Mayor’s bizarre expenses policy says she must fly business class
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CLOVER Moore’s City of Sydney council has given a two-fingered salute to the state government after being told to clean up its expenses policy.

Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton last night said she would investigate council expenses across NSW after City of Sydney’s “profoundly disappointing” decision not to “clean up its act”.

“The City of Sydney’s draft expenses policy remains at odds with state government guidelines and ratepayers’ expectations,” Ms Upton said.

“The City of Sydney was advised last month by the regulator that they needed to fix up their policies and they haven’t. They just don’t get it, they need to clean up their act.

“Instead they have thumbed their noses at the regulator.”

Last month The Daily Telegraph exposed how the City of Sydney tried to introduce a policy that would give the Lord Mayor the power to sign off on her own expenses.

The policy would have allowed Ms Moore — who has an annual office budget of $3.6 million — uncapped spending without proper checks and balances.

Ms Upton stepped in to block the policy and told the council it had just three weeks to “get its house in order”.

“The City of Sydney’s draft expenses policy remains at odds with state government guidelines and ratepayers’ expectations,” Ms Upton said. Picture: John Appleyard

The Daily Telegraph can now reveal, however, that City of Sydney has ignored the minister’s order and failed to fix the non-compliant policy.

Instead it has introduced a clause that would allow Ms Moore’s expenses to be signed off by her personal staff, including her chief of staff and administrative assistant.

The policy also still fails to ­introduce limits on Ms Moore’s spending.

On Friday, Office of Local Government (OLG) chief executive Tim Hurst again wrote to City of Sydney to order it to fix the expenses policy, set to be introduced early this year.

Mr Hurst slammed the proposal to allow Ms Moore’s own staff to approve her expenses.

“The proposed practice, which provides for the Lord Mayor’s claims to be accessed by staff who report to her, is not tenable,” Mr Hurst wrote.

“If this is the current practice, administrative action should be taken immediately.”

The letter also raised concerns the policy does not have “adequate mechanisms” to stop councillors claiming expenses that “exceed reasonable private incidental use”.

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A City of Sydney spokeswoman said that the council would co-operate with the OLG.

“While it’s strange the OLG has suddenly flagged these processes as an issue after reviewing the policy for over a decade, we will of course work with them to resolve their concerns before the final policy is approved by council,” the spokeswoman said.

She would not say if Ms Moore had used her own staff to sign off on her expenses in the past.

“All Lord Mayor and councillor expenditure is monitored and audited — as is any expenditure by the City of Sydney,” she said.