Daintree Ferry: Douglas Shire Council to make negotiations into ferry contract public
An audit commissioned by a Far North council into the controversial purchase of a $4.5m ferry is set to be made public despite the objection of councillors.
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AN audit commissioned by a Far North council into the controversial purchase of a $4.5m ferry is set to be made public despite the objection of councillors at a special meeting in Mossman.
Douglas Shire councillors moved to lift a confidentiality seal into decisions that led to the acquisition of the Daintree Ferry contract earlier this year when they bought the cable service and equipment from Sirron Enterprises (QLD) Pty Ltd.
The purchase followed the expiration of the company’s contract, which threatened to leave the Daintree community and visitors without access to the rainforest.
Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr and councillors Peter McKeown and Lisa Scomazzon all voted in favour of making the report – compiled by independent firm Local Buy Probity for just over $45,000 – available on the council’s website.
Cr Kerr said it would finally allow the community to see the due process that occurred into the contract negotiations.
“It was unfortunate due to the confidentiality of negotiations at the time that it did lead to misleading information being put out to the public on social media,” Cr Kerr said.
“This document highlights the factual reasons why this council took the actions it did to ensure the best result from our community, both economical and practical.”
The council resolved to engage a probity auditor in May this year to investigate the contract process for the Daintree Ferry contracts, including the original two ferry tender, the outright purchase of the existing ferry and the solicitation, evaluation and award of the interim ferry solution.
Councillor Roy Zammataro and Abigail Noli both objected to the motion, the former citing a lack of consultation by the auditor to “key stakeholders” involved in the process.
“There is terminology in there such as it is understood. To me, that is lacking documented evidence,” he said.
“I would like to be a bit more specific but I can’t as this document is still labelled confidential and I can’t disclose what is in here.”
The audit’s scope related to the review of the decisions council made to its overall Daintree River ferry Strategy with respect to its short, medium and longer-term procurement and contract solutions.
The full report will be published on council’s website once final approvals have been met.
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Originally published as Daintree Ferry: Douglas Shire Council to make negotiations into ferry contract public
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