Frustration as Toowoomba Regional Council cuts $21m in projects from budget

$1 out of every $10 from the original Toowoomba Regional Council budget will now not be spent on new projects, after the TRC adjusted its figures. It has led to a massive underspend in capital works.

Toowoomba City Hall.

Toowoomba councillors have called for answers into its underdelivering capital works program, after it was revealed about 10 per cent of money set aside for new infrastructure and projects won’t be spent by the end of the financial year.

In a move that frustrated several elected officials at committee meetings on Wednesday, the council’s finance and business strategy group announced it had scaled back the organisation’s $212m capital works program to just $191m as part of the TRC’s second budget review.

It means more than $21m that was budgeted to be spent on new works in 2020-21 won’t be delivered by June 30 — essentially $1 out of every $10 from the original budget.

The council had spruiked its two-pronged capital works program as a way of reviving the local economy during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, creating a special $50m Pandemic Response Investment program to boost suppliers.

Cr Nancy Sommerfield was the first to express her disappointment at the result, saying there needed to be a better solution.

“I can’t not say this — it’s disappointing we found ourselves, once again, with a huge underspend in capital expenditure, and this happens every year,” she said.

“I’m hoping that for the upcoming budget, that we can find a better solution to this.

“We can’t keep doing the same thing year-on-year and expect things to change.

“As I said in a recent session, I do think we have to change the way we currently provide these big numbers for capital expenditure, and they are never met by a long way.”

Cr Megan O’Hara Sullivan also noted her frustration with continued underspending on capital works, asking for answers from the CEO Brian Pidgeon.

“I’ve been here for five years, and every year it’s the same conversation, so I’d love a comment from the CEO as to how things are going to change,” she said.

In response, Mr Pidgeon said there was no “magic solution” and a multitude of factors could play into why a department had failed to complete certain projects.

“You could outsource some of that stuff within the program, but then you’ve got to be careful you get the balance right,” he said.

Mayor Paul Antonio suggested the private sector could be employed to help meet the shortfall.

The council was on track with several metrics related to long-term sustainability, including a budget surplus of less than 10 per cent (projected to be 0.2 per cent).