$ 31m saved as council cuts waste, red tape

CUTTING jobs, slashing credit card numbers and increasing efficiency has saved ratepayers $ 31.1 million.

The savings were made by Townsville City Council after adopting recommendations from an independent review.

The Nous Organisational Report was adopted by the council on September 27, 2016.

There were 24 reforms identified by the review, which aimed to slash red tape, improve financial sustainability and boost economic activation.

Mayor Jenny Hill said the savings had mostly come from simple changes such as cutting fleet vehicles, changing credit card usage and tightening procurement processes.

“At amalgamation ( in 2008) we just brought together two bureaucracies. The previous council would not support me in doing what really needed to be done, which was a solid review of the management and a determination of where the savings could be made,” she said. “The reality was that council did not want to see any change; the community gave me a team I could work with and we’ve been able to make those changes and make those savings. That’s what amalgamation was meant to bring to our community.”

The estimated budget saving was $ 27.6 million but the council found an extra $ 3.7 million in savings.

Cr Hill said it had been quite a process to get to this point.

“There were no forced redundancies in this process, so it has been a difficult way to get forward, but we’ve gotten there,” she said.

“Those savings that we have made … we’ve been able to reflect that back by either not having rate rises or having rate rises at CPI.”