The Central Otago District Council has been urged to be “ambitious” in overhauling its financial systems after an external review found its current processes risk repeating past budgeting issues. 

An independent Deloitte report presented to the Audit and Risk Committee on Monday (December 8) rated the council’s financial maturity as “developing”.  

The assessment noted “reactive” planning, inconsistent forecasting, and an over-reliance on “poorly controlled” manual spreadsheets. 

The review also found departments often budgeted in “silos”, with limited cross-organisation coordination.  

Deloitte said this had contributed to a “low capital completion rate”, meaning key infrastructure projects were being delayed or carried over to future years. 

Committee chair Bruce Robertson said there was a clear need for improvement across the organisation. 

He said there was “dissonance within the organisation in terms of staff understanding their budgets and how to prepare them and manage them”, and warned the council risked repeating mistakes in its

next 10-year plan if it was not proactive. 

“If we aren’t ambitious and trying to work on these rather relevant recommendations in here we’re going to repeat the same mistakes for this LTP (Long Term Plan),” Bruce said. 

A detailed “roadmap” for implementing the changes is expected to be presented to the committee in February. 

Deloitte report writer Kelvin Weston told the committee the “developing” rating was not a concern and reflected the size and complexity of the organisation. 

“It’s what would be expected for an organisation or council of your size and scope,” Kelvin said.  

He described the rating as “good news”, saying it meant there was clear room for continual improvement. 

Improving financial maturity was not simply about upgrading software, with Kevin saying, “People, process, and technology need to work hand-in-hand". 

“The success of uplifting maturity really depends on all three of those areas.” 

Deputy mayor Tracy Patterson said the council wanted to be upfront with the community about areas that could be strengthened. 

“We’re trying to be very transparent where we have things that we can work on,” she said. 

“We’ve got room for improvement, which is where we all should be heading.” 

CODC chief financial officer Paul Morris told the committee staff were already working to ensure the recommendations were incorporated as planning begins for the 2027-37 Long Term Plan. 

Deloitte recommended establishing “cross-functional budgeting coordination groups” to reduce siloing and providing targeted training to budget holders to improve financial skills across the

organisation.