A South Australian council is calling for more standardised reporting and benchmarking for the local government sector across the state.
The City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters will ask the Local Government Association of SA (LGASA) to push for the introduction of a benchmarking framework to measure the performance of South Australian Councils, as well as establishing a standardised rates reporting system for Local Government.
Following the recent Inquiry into Rate Capping Policies by the State Parliament’s Economic and Finance Committee, the LGA will present a submission to the Minister for Local Government, the Hon Geoff Brock, outlining suggested reforms to the annual budget process, on behalf of the Local Government sector.
Mayor Robert Bria, who appeared with Council Chief Executive Officer Mario Barone before the Committee in September 2015, to put forward a case against the introduction of rate capping, presented a Notice of Motion to the Council at its meeting held on 1 August 2016.
As part of the Notice of Motion, the Council endorsed the recommendations of the Economic and Finance Committee, that rate capping not be introduced and to continue to allow Councils to consult with communities as part of the annual budget process.
“The Council is grateful that the Committee listened to the views of Councils and agrees with the recommendations put forward by the Committee in respect to rate capping,” said Mayor Bria.
The Council also supported Mayor Bria’s call for the establishment of a formal benchmarking framework for Councils in South Australia, to enable annual comparisons to be made between councils in regards to the cost, efficiency and quality of ‘like’ services and programs delivered to their communities.
“A benchmarking framework will provide better transparency for communities to make ‘apples for apples’ comparisons regarding the cost and quality of services and programs, as well as the maintenance of infrastructure, across all Councils,” said Mayor Bria.
“The absence of a benchmarking framework makes it difficult for the community to determine whether they are getting best value for their rates.
“Such a framework will also provide greater accountability for Councils to identify areas in service and program delivery and infrastructure maintenance where there are inefficiencies and improvements may be made,” he said.
The Council also called for the establishment of a standardised rate reporting system to address the criticism by the Committee in respect to the inconsistent and incomplete rates figures which are provided by Councils.
