Under a shared services agreement, a group of councils in Tasmania and the Northern Territory has saved over $1.2 million and exchanged more than 14,000 hours or work over the last 12 months.
The Local Government Shared Services (LGSS) initiative encompasses 13 member councils: Brighton, Central Highlands, Glenorchy, Glamorgan Spring Bay, Huon Valley, Sorell, Southern Midlands, and Tasman in Tasmania, and in the Northern Territory: Coomalie, the City of Palmerston, Litchfield, Wagait and West Arnhem.
Local Government Shared Services (LGSS) Chairman Peter Murfett said the agreement initially began in April 2015, and involved five councils, but as it has expanded, so has the program’s efficacy.
“As an example, 1410 hours of services were exchanged during August 2016, an increase of five percent on the previous month and well above the three-month average of 1263 hours a month,” he said.
“Services have been exchanged covering the wide range of local government areas of responsibility from planning and asset management to finance and accounting, environmental health, rating, information technology and human resources.
“Since the inception of the initiative, we have seen a 66 percent increase in hours exchanged between participating councils with savings growing at a similar rate.
“Importantly, the costs associated with managing the operation are kept to a minimum with the LGSS administered by a committee of one representative from each participating council, an independent chairman, and a part-time chief administrator. There are no direct employee costs and member councils are only charged on a user-pays basis for time spent administering operations.
“Total administration costs last financial year were approximately $35,000, just a three percent ratio when compared with the estimated net benefits received by participating councils of $1.2 million.
“Undoubtedly we are looking to future growth as other councils seek to avail themselves of shared services.”
Mr Murfett said Tasmanian councils were now exchanging services with Northern Territory councils in the areas of information technology, video editing/production, and policy development, and opportunities were being developed for the provision of payroll, asset management and accountancy services.
“We are currently investigating a common cloud solution to be used as platform for common systems to maximise the opportunities for service exchange within the group.”
Mr Murfett said Local Government Shared Services was helping member councils become more cost effective.
“For the participating Tasmanian councils, Local Government Shared Services is in keeping with Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein’s policy position that local government reform must be in the interest of ratepayers, improve services for the community, preserve and maintain local representation and ensure that the financial status of the Councils is strengthened.
“Importantly, participating councils have access to all the skills and experience within all the councils under agreed shared service arrangements, enabling them to better and more cost effectively meet the needs of their ratepayers.”
