Council receives warning for 2017 Civic Centre use

Published on 21 February 2020

The State Government has met with Council after the NSW Ombudsman recently completed an investigation around the Civic Centre refurbishment project. 

The investigation report provided Council with a number of recommendations that were passed at an Extraordinary Meeting in January.

The matter was then passed to the Office of Local Government (OLG) and Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE), who visited Council yesterday to discuss the adopted recommendations and participate in a meeting of Council's Audit Risk and Improvement Committee.

Mayor Darriea Turley AM said the visit was welcomed by the Committee and provided an element of closure for all involved.

"I think the OLG and DPIE were disappointed with how things played out around the Civic Centre, as we all were, but they were also very supportive and constructive," she said.

"It was a good chance for us to show the improvements we've made since 2017 regarding project management, procurement, health and safety, and risk management right across the organisation.

"We never want to find ourselves in another situation like the Civic Centre, and I think the OLG/DPIE saw that we're being very proactive on that front.

"They issued us with a warning on behalf of the OLG and DPIE which we obviously take very seriously.

"We'll continue to work with both bodies to ensure our processes improve into the future, but it was good to get an element of closure in the meantime on incidents that occurred some years ago."