Central Goldfields ratepayers call for answers about $32 million in flood recovery funds

The demands follow revelations the council received more than $32 million, but could not specify how much had been spent in Carisbrook on flood recovery.

Ratepayers are of the opinion little has been done to mitigate the risk of flooding since the community was devastated almost seven years ago.

Documents provided to the The Courier state the federal government provided the Central Goldfields Shire with almost $31 million between 2010-11 and 2016-17 for flood recovery.

The state government provided an additional $1.325 million over a period of three years.

Central Goldfields Shire interim administrator Mark Davies said expenditure had been documented in the council’s financial system as part of the acquittal process to government.

But the sum of money spent on flood recovery works in Carisbrook had ‘not been quantified’.

He says a lack of verifiable accounting has led to a justifiable perception that flood funding in the shire was ‘missing’.

Mr Davies said it was important to remember that substantial and expensive work had been done in simply reinstating roads and destroyed infrastructure, which is not immediately apparent.

He said the issue was brought to his attention by the council’s auditors, who have said while the money has been spent, it is unclear as to exactly what it was spent on.

He agreed with locals calling for more transparency, especially on the construction of levees to resist further inundation in the future, and said the building of a major levee on the Pyrenees Highway was being delayed by negotiations with a landholder.

He said works already done would substantially reduce the number of homes which might be inundated in the future and that locals had agreed with this prediction.

Mr Davies said he was working with interim CEO Vince Haining to appoint a new CEO for the shire to assist in improving the culture of the council and restructuring the executive, incorporating a program to deal with entrenched problems.

Community members are questioning how the money has been spent.

“There’s no way known $30 million was spent [in Carisbrook] – not a chance,” Carisbrook publican David Kolevas said.

“I’d like them to point out to the ratepayers where that money’s gone, what that’s been used for… to itemise it.”

Works have taken place in Carisbrook since the flood, including part of a levee project.

“The work they've done in Pleasant Street and Wills street, if we do get any rain, the water just lays there for days or weeks on end - it just doesn’t drain away,” Mr Kolevas said.

Carisbrook Fire Brigade Captain Ian Boucher was sceptical the works would prevent a flooding event similar to that of 2011.

“If we had the same rain event we had in 2011 we’d have exactly the same problem,” he said.

“Township protection at the moment is still a non-event.”

He said a western levee was key to tackling the overland flow of water in the community.

The council has budgeted $69,000 for further creek clearing and $2 million to construct a final levee bank near the Pyrenees Highway.

Mr Boucher said Carisbrook community members had raised concerns about flood recovery works with the council over a number of years.

“Now we haven’t got a council,” he said.

The state government sacked the Central Goldfields Shire in August.

Former chief executive Mark Johnston faces 67 charges in relation to his time in the role.

Allegations include conflict of interest, obtaining financial advantage by deception, false accounting, and misuse of a corporate credit card.

Fairfax Media is not suggesting any of the charges relate to flood funding.

In its investigation into the Central Goldfields Shire Council, the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate referenced flood recovery funding in a section titled ‘financial mismanagement’.

“During this investigation, the Inspectorate found significant grant funding was mismanaged and cannot be accounted for by council,” the report stated.

The Inspectorate found evidence that flood funding had been allocated to a bike path extension project.

Construction of the bike path project had yet to start when the flood happened.

Carisbrook Disaster Recovery Committee member and former Central Goldfields councillor Helen Broad was astounded when she learned of the sum the council had received for flood recovery.

She and fellow former councillor Paula Nixon said they had been asking after flood recovery funding and works for years.

“These grants are not location specific,” a staffer stated in a letter responding to resident queries.

“Also, our current financial system had limitations to create a multiyear reporting and reporting based on location and or assets.”

The applicant was provided with a summary of all flood works, “which includes projects in and around Carisbrook”.

It was not possible to discern in which parts of the municipality the money had been spent.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted because I had no idea – none – that we had received $30 million from the federal government,” Ms Nixon said.

​Ms Broad said councillors were seldom in receipt of detailed reports about government grants.

“It was just verbal – that’s the way we were told,” she said.

Ms Broad said she ran for council ‘to get an answer for where and why we didn’t get things done at Carisbrook’ and to try to improve the working relationship between the community and the council.

“At the end of the day, those residents down at Carisbrook have missed out on a lot,” she said.

“They’ve copped a raw deal.”

She reiterated her calls for the council to account for how the funding had been spent.

Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford released a statement regarding the investigation.

“The Central Goldfields Shire Council let down residents, businesses, and government organisations in its mismanagement of funds, which is why the Government dismissed the Council in August this year,” the statement reads.

“The Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate found that in 2011, the Council had applied to two Government funding programs for funding for the same project and misled the Victorian Government by not declaring the co-investment which is a requirement of the application process.

“Since 2011, Regional Development Victoria (RDV) has improved grant processes. Since this report I have required RDV to assess all grants to CGSC. RDV is providing advice to me about options to recoup the funds related to the 2011 grant.”