Coorong District Council's Financial Sustainability On Track

The State’s regulatory body, the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) has provided Coorong District Council a positive financial review, having assessed the Council to be mostly sustainable as part of a State Government initiative focussed on local government financial sustainability.

The outcomes of ESCOSA’s financial review and recommendations are now available to view on ESCOSA’s website (www.escosa.sa.gov.au) and were reviewed this week by Council’s Elected Members in a workshop session.

From an overall perspective ESCOSA found that Coorong District Council’s current and projected financial performance is mostly sustainable, and the Council’s Long Term Financial Plan presented sound direction to ensure long term stability.

ESCOSA’s findings showed Coorong District Council has in the recent years created a robust alignment between its asset management and long-term financial planning. This drives each annual budget to ensure adequate resources can be allocated to renewing ageing infrastructure and equipment whilst containing debt levels and not relying on high levels of increases in income.

Coorong District Council’s Mayor Paul Simmons has welcomed the report, stating that overall this is a good result for the Council.

“ESCOSA’s report validates the hard work done in recent years by staff and Council, supported by our Audit & Risk Committee independent members,” says Mayor Simmons.

“We are very pleased but not necessarily surprised by the report findings. Council has a good grasp on what it needs to do to keep on the path of financial sustainability, asset renewal and minimising the financial burden for ratepayers.”

ESCOSA provided the Council with several key recommendations, including:

• Maintain annual review of Long-Term Financial Plan
• Review inflation forecasts in budget and forward projections.
• Monitor income against forecasts to enable timely budget adjustments.
• Continue to review asset valuations at least every four years.
• Adhere to the principles of its Long-Term Financial Plan projections to provide sufficient funding to the renewal of its assets, rather than prioritising initiatives that involve new or upgraded infrastructure.

“Our Long Term Financial Plan projects reducing the size of rate increases in coming years, whilst achieving surplus positions and funding asset renewal so that costs do not build up due to a back log of deferred works,” added Mayor Paul Simmons.

“Getting to this position gives our Council more flexibility to do things such as supporting drought affected property owners in the future.”

“To achieve financial sustainability in local government and stay on track requires great discipline. Councils must make wise and sometimes difficult decisions.

“Building new assets must be balanced against the cost of maintaining and depreciating them. ESCOSA recommends we concentrate on maintaining and renewing existing assets, keeping the strong alignment between asset and financial planning, and very importantly, actively seek opportunities for savings.

“Moving forward, our Council will give full consideration to ESCOSA’s findings and recommendations. We will continue to build on this work for the benefit of our community.”

-ENDS-

Contact:
Bridget Mather
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER | COORONG DISTRICT COUNCIL
Phone: 1300 785 277 | E: council@coorong.sa.gov.au