In July, Hurstville City Council signed a contract to commercialise its Certificate of Cash and Investments (CC&I). The contract was signed by Hurstville Mayor, Councillor Vince Badalati and Sirius International Manager, Michael Tunks, to launch the product on the market.
“The CC&I was created by Hurstville City Council to provide concise financial information regarding available cash for use by Councillors during the course of the financial year, over and above what had already been allowed for in the budget,” Councillor Badalati said. “In effect this was discretionary cash.
“The CC&I has been designed to enable Councillors to quickly assess the level of such cash as well as the general performance of our cash portfolio and to do this within the statutory requirements of the Local Government Act regarding such disclosures. Council is very appreciative of the innovative approach our finance staff have taken in developing this product.”
The development of the Certificate has been closely linked to the development of Council’s key performance indicators.
“Ultimately the CC&I, together with the broader Key Performance Indicator Report, has evolved into an easy to read, transparent reporting mechanism that gives clarity to the financial condition of Council as measured by cash and reserve holdings and interest rate performance on the cash portfolio,” said Hurstville’s Divisional Manager Business and Finance, David Rosenbaum. “It encompasses all statutory reporting requirements but goes much further delivering a higher level of transparency and value added information both for Councillors and the community through its availability on Council’s website.”
The development of the CC&I had become a talking point at various presentations and Local Government conferences in Australia and New Zealand. As a result of this exposure, it caught the eye of an external commercial software developer, The Solutions House, which saw value in linking it with a product range that it was developing simultaneously.
The CC&I enables a Council to find out the following.
- Where its cash is
- What return it is getting back on its funds
- How its returns compare with key benchmarks
- What levels of cash are available for discretionary spending
- What statutory and non- statutory reserves it is holding.
From that point, the joint development has grown and the result has been the first commercialisation of internally generated intellectual property at Hurstville City Council. The funds earned from this commercialisation endeavour will assist in funding general Council programs and is the first in what Council sees as a number of such future opportunities.
For further information contact David Rosenbaum, telephone (02) 9330 6052.
