7/8/00
Local Government Minister Paul Omodei has announced a new Financial Management Award for the State’s local governments.
Addressing delegates at Local Government Week this morning, Mr Omodei said the new awards would replace the budget awards which have been presented over the last five years.
Mr Omodei said the budget awards had achieved their objective of raising the standard of presentation of financial information in local government budgets.
When they were introduced, less than a third of budgets exceeded the minimum standard of 65 per cent.
In the most recent awards, more than 80 per cent exceeded the minimum standard of 81 per cent.
“It is now time to expand our horizons and focus on the whole question of financial management,” the Minister said.
“The new awards will encompass the budget, the principal activity plan, quarterly statements and the end of year financial report, including a comparison between the budget and its outcome in the financial report.
“This will provide a profile of how local governments have performed financially over the year.”
Mr Omodei said the awards would begin with the budget assessments and those which met the initial requirements would be invited to participate in the full financial review.
Local governments would be divided into three categories depending on size and revenue to ensure that they were competing on a fair footing.
Winning councils would be operating at a very high standard and their work would provide examples that other councils could adopt to improve their performance.
Media contact: Hugh Ryan 9213 6700
