Steady hand on the tiller

THERE have been some dramatic claims made in letters to the Ed recently, including on the City of Vincent’s financial management. 

Over recent years, Vincent has made significant progress in the areas of financial maturity, fiscal responsibility and asset management.

Every year, we are audited by the Office of the Audit General which sets a very high bar on scrutiny of our finances and organisational performance.

There has been whole of organisation improvement to our financial and corporate planning, project and risk management, property management and leasing, procurement and contract management and fraud prevention practices in line with public sector best practice.

We were able to manage through the last two very difficult years of Covid with rates freezes and revenue losses while supporting our community, local businesses and ensuring our financial sustainability.

Like many WA councils we have a long-term program to improve asset management. We’re working hard to catch up on an historic backlog of maintenance on assets like Beatty Park, community buildings and park facilities.

At the same time, Vincent is preparing for the once-in-a-generation delivery of the most affordable underground power we’ve seen in 20 years to a third of households. 

We are doing this at a time of high inflation, rising material and project costs and supply chain issues. This does create a challenging set of circumstances but our financial maturity sets us up to face these financial headwinds responsibly and with a focus on our long term sustainability.

Vincent ratepayers are receiving very good value for money considering we are the sixth lowest rating of 29 metro local governments and based on the positive feedback we receive every day on the quality of our parks, town centres and services. 

The City of Vincent will start community consultation on the 2022/23 draft Rates Setting Statement next Wednesday and I invite all community members to provide feedback at http://www.imagine.vincent.wa.gov.au