LGOIMA Request Details

1.      What "other" groups are being catered for when you state "figures in 'other' are not staff only?

MDC financial system does not record all attendees at meetings but merely the details recorded on the invoice of the supplier, it is not possible to accurately group all expenditure into the headings requested of:

·         Council meetings

·         Employee meetings

·         Functions

In the previous response the classification of "council" refers to Governance budget.  Costs incurred in that budget relate to events and activities which are initiated or predominately related to elected members, there may or may not be staff involved in those meetings.

·         Citizenship ceremony,

·         Elected members induction,

·         Lunches/Morning tea for Council meetings including focus groups, and hearings committee.

·         Meetings with external parties and various elected members 

The classification of 'other" refers to any catering that is not initiated or predominately involving the governance team, more specifically activity related.  

·         Costs associated with community events run at the Library – many are funded via selling tickets:  such as the Murder Mystery evening

·         Costs associated with community events

·         Tea, coffee and milk for council buildings,

·         Morning tea shouts for Long service celebrations, retirements, farewells for senior staff.

·         Staff Christmas break up 

The finance system does not usually record who/entity that was being catered for, the information recorded in the finance system is limited and records the supplier, good ordered, or description from the purchase order. 

2.      Can you please give us a breakdown of the 2023 expenses and why did this exceed budget by such a significant amount?

The 2023 financial result reflected $15,976 over budget which reflects and is reflected in a range of under and over variances, the main variances are:

The areas that:

·         Tea coffee and Milk for council buildings were previously coded to 'general expenses.  However, in 2023 the coding of the invoices was moved to more correctly identify the cost as food and beverages, this resulted in $9,619 of costs unbudgeted in food and beverages, and an underspend in $9,870 underspend in general expenses.

·         Other variances across the council are small and include: Staff anniversaries, long service celebrations, farewells, The impact of election year, and induction of elected members

3.      2023 was excessively over budget, what groups were catered for in that time period which caused such an unexpected expense?

As above, the finance system does not record who is in attendance at events and meetings, the increase in costs recorded as Food and Beverages is predominately the reclassification of tea coffee and milk supplies.