PLAYFORD Council is exposed to “corruption, misconduct or maladministration” due to several questionable policies and procedures, an independent authority has found.
Deputy Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) Michael Riches began his review into the council’s administrative policies and procedures in April, amid Playford’s supreme court battle with former CEO Mal Hemmerling, who was sacked by elected members over sexual harassment allegations.
He found the council’s record keeping and approach to preparing, approving, disseminating and reviewing polices “fell short” of his expectations.
“So too is there significant room for improvement in terms of attitude towards adherence to those policies,” Mr Riches said.
“It was a surprise to me when a senior executive member of the City of Playford told me that his focus was on delivering quality services to the community rather than ensuring up to date policies.
“In my view the existence of up-to-date, clear and relevant policies and the adherence to those policies is fundamental to ensuring the delivery of quality services, not a barrier to it.”
Also in the report, Mr Riches commented there were “robust views” from staff and elected members on the level of communication between council’s administration and elected members.
“Some elected members expressed concern to me that there had been occasions where the elected member felt that he or she was being invited to vote on a matter in the absence of all relevant information,” he said.
“Some executive staff acknowledged that there had been occasions where information held by the council had not been communicated to the elected body, but that such circumstances had been rectified.
“I was also told that there had been occasions where the elected body were not properly updated on the status of important projects, meaning elected members were not as well informed of council activities as might be expected.”
Mr Riches made 21 recommendations to the council spanning a range of administration improvements – Playford Council has accepted all of them.
Playford Mayor Glenn Docherty said the council “welcomed” the report and found the evaluation to be “a comprehensive, reasonable and well-considered process”.
“The Deputy Commissioner and his team were open in their approach, enabling us to start addressing early some of the weaknesses he identified as he conducted the evaluation,” he said.
“The recommendations provided in the evaluation report will assist the new Council and the Administration to continue to build strong foundations of governance underpinning our delivery to our community.
“We hope, like the Deputy Commissioner, that his observations and recommendations will also be helpful to other Councils and public authorities.”
