Perth Voice Interactive

A $21,800 “debt” owed by Bendigo North Perth Community Bank to Vincent city council—the product of what has been described as a  “bizarre” and “inappropriate” handshake deal—is being written off.

Since taking over the reins at Vincent new CEO Len Kosova and his team of bean-counters have been running a careful eye over the city’s finances. It has discovered that in 2013—when John Giorgi was CEO—city officers had discussed with branch representatives a sponsorship deal.

The community bank branch is chaired by former mayor Nick Catania.

Under the informal agreement the branch was to pay for wall-mounted DVD screens at Beatty Park pool—which would also carry Bendigo logo sponsorship—in return for the city shifting Beatty Park’s banking business to the branch.

The city spent nearly $22,000 on the screens and issued an invoice for reimbursement.

However, because it never switched the pool’s accounts to Bendigo—it had been deemed impractical to split city accounts—the branch never paid the council back.

“I’m not going to dance around the subject: it shouldn’t have occurred,” Mr Kosova told councillors Tuesday night. His description of deal was met with chuckles of disbelief from the chamber.

Perplexed

He said the issuing of an invoice without a signed deal in place was “premature and inappropriate”.

He said it was “very poor form” and he was “perplexed and disappointed about how this came to be”.

He’s trying to determine if any of the staff involved are still employed.

Mayor John Carey labelled the deal “bizarre” and said it underlined why ongoing reform was needed.

“Have faith in our pathway of reform that these types of scenarios will not happen… because we have a great new CEO and a new finance director who are driving reform in all our processes.”

by DAVID BELL