This week Council voted to pay Citywide an undisclosed amount to settle a dispute over the contract price with the Council to provide waste collection services. Council documents revealed that Citywide had underpriced their services because the City of Port Phillip had not provided maps of properties requiring kerbside waste collection or sufficient information about the number of properties requiring these services.

Two independent audits of the procurement process to appoint a new contractor and the subsequent transition to Citywide found failures in operational processes and failures of governance. The audit reports cost $225,000 and another $136,000 was spent on waste collection. 

Mayor Cunsolo on behalf of the CoPP has apologised for these failures but no individuals have been held accountable when other Councils are able to seamlessly transition to new contractors.

I believe ratepayers have a right to know how much the failure of governance and operational processes have cost us. When I asked Councillors at the Council Meeting why they had chosen to keep the settlement amount confidential, I was told that revealing the settlement payment would jeopardise price competition when waste services are re-tendered in early 2025.

It is difficult to understand why the settlement sum should be confidential when the contract amount for waste collection services is disclosed in the Council's budget. A officer confirmed that the settlement sum will be incorporated in the budget plus 2.75%. Incidentally, contracted waste services cost $14.4 million in the budget. 

The settlement payment to Citywide does not need to be confidential because the amount does not allow other contractors to estimate the original contract price. Presumably other contractors would be paid the same amount if they were seeking a settlement for failure of the City of Port Phillip to share maps and other important information.

In response to a question from Cr Pearl, an Officer advised "the settlement agreement does not prevent the Council from disclosing the cost". 

The Management Action Plan indicates many of the Council’s processes were clearly inadequate to manage any procurement process and project plan.

Residents have a right to know what the Council’s incompetence has cost. I suspect that the amount has been kept confidential to avoid further embarrassment and protect those responsible. .

Finally, I asked why nobody has been held accountable? I did not receive a response from the Mayor or officers. It seems that public servants are not held to the same level of accountability as managers in the private sector. 

In the words of Shrek "well I have to save my ass".