Petrol-card use under scrutiny
A council chief executive who contacted police over potentially ‘‘unusual’’ petrol card spending by a now-dumped mayor, had previously used her own council petrol card in a similar way.
The council says the chief executive was not queried over her use because her car agreement is ‘‘entirely different’’.
An official information request to Porirua City Council covering petrol card spending by its chief executive Wendy Walker shows that on three occasions in December last year she topped up her council car within three days. In April this year, she refilled her car in the space of two days.
A week before October’s council elections, Walker sent a confidential email to councillors and former mayor Mike Tana disclosing an investigation into potentially ‘‘unusual’’ petrol card spending by the then-mayor.
She revealed in the email, which promptly leaked to media, she had made initial contact with police over the matter.
The spending related to six instances when Tana, who had personal use offset by a reduction in mayoral salary, refilled the mayoral car in the space of two days.
An eventual auditors’ report into the instances reconstructed Tana’s travel but made no recommendations about further action by Walker. Walker herself took no further action with police.
In the latest official information request response, she said she used her petrol card with the closely spaced top-ups and refill because she had full personal use offset by a sacrifice in salary, under her contract.
Council chief financial officer and corporate services general manager Roy Baker said the agreements for the mayoral and chief executive cars ‘‘are set entirely differently’’.
The prime purpose of the chief executive’s use of the car was as a private benefit, he said. ‘‘You can have a total cash remuneration, or you can sacrifice part of your remuneration and have a car.’’
The intention of providing a vehicle for a mayor was in recognition that the mayor needed to be able to conduct business on behalf of the council, Baker said.
The Remuneration Authority set the policy for the mayor’s vehicle, with a salary sacrifice of $3510, he said. ‘‘This acknowledges ... there will be some personal use.’’ The calculation was based on personal use being about 20 per cent.
Baker said contacting police was a ‘‘last resort’’ after the council had no feedback from Tana about why he needed to fill up in the periods under scrutiny.
‘‘We wanted an understanding of what had happened to cause those events.
‘‘We weren’t criticising or anything like that but we failed to get an answer.’’
Tana could not be reached for comment on the chief executive’s petrol card spending but had previously said the 20 per cent figure was only a recommendation.
The auditors’ report found about 64 per cent of travel on the days in question was for personal use: Tana made a couple of trips to Palmerston North to pick up one of his children and drove another to his Wellington school.
The 64 per cent was only covering a period of high use: The percentage evened out over the longer term, Tana said.
After the election, won narrowly by new mayor Anita Baker, Walker said she sent the email because of her professional ‘‘no surprises’’ policy with the council.
Tana said the release of the information a week out from election could have affected its outcome.
Walker has repeatedly refused an interview.