Queenstown Lakes councillors have voted for a stop-gap solution to the council’s procurement debacle, enabling individual staff to approve work up to $10k.

Councillors held a special meeting this morning (Thursday February 25) in the ongoing saga over procurement rules - the guidelines which cover how council staff appoint outside contractors, suppliers and consultants.

A recent report revealed Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) staff had not been following the guidelines for years.

In one instance, work totalling $630,000 was commissioned from one company, ZQN7, without due regard to the rules for work over $50k.

Now, council bosses have realised a literal interpretation of the guidelines means staff can't even sign-off on relatively small amounts - and so have been breaching the rules at least 300 times a month.

So they held a rush meeting to put interim measures in place so, as mayor Jim Boult put it, "we don't have to get three prices every time we buy a packet of biscuits".  

Niamh Shaw was a dissenting voice.

The 10k threshold was eventually approved, but councillors Niki Gladding and Niamh Shaw were dissenting voices.

Nikki led the charge, questioning how there could be any accountability when the 10k threshold allows individual staff members to directly appoint contractors, without even sign-off from a manager.

She highlighted how five of the contracts awarded to ZQN7 were initially each under the $10k threshold.  

". . . looking at the overspend on those, three of them went over," Nikki said.

"One went over by $66,000, one went over by $32,000, I'm rounding down, and the other went over by $56,000"

She added: "What you're asking us to do is approve a process in which there is zero accountability back on management to oversee the process."

Related:

Following procurement guidelines ‘not practicable’ for QLDC

Big consultant spend after QLDC staff ‘misconstrued’ policy

Geoff Mayman, the council's commercial and procurement manager, told her staff had delegated authority to make such decisions and that was part of their expertise. 

Council finance boss Stuart Burns told her overspends breaching the $10k threshold will need to be signed off by two people.

Still, Nikki proposed an amendment that direct appointments should be signed off by two people, but Niamh was the only councillor to support it.  

Council chief executive Mike Theelen said it will, however, be looked at as part of an in-depth review of the procurement process, which would take place in the next six months.

Nikki was successful in an amendment calling for a date to be put on that review - it must be returned to full council by September 2.

Niamh said the interim changes proposed don't address the problem that the original procurement policy and guidelines were not followed.

"I am quite personally disappointed with how we are handling this," she said.  

"I don't believe we can say we need to focus on the future without acknowledging what has happened over the past four years."

Niamh questioned why, other than cost, councillors weren't in favour of a full independent review.  

Jim said he isn't interested in "a witch hunt".

He and councillors Heath Copland, Quentin Smith and Penny Clark spoke out against the idea there was corruption at the council, or a jobs for the boys mentality, or any "wrongdoing" at all.  

Quentin labelled the issues "technical non-compliances" saying it's clear "nobody's getting contracts they shouldn't be getting, nobody's spending money in a way that's inappropriate".

"To me this is really frustrating how this is being construed, and I take it quite personally because it does feel like it's being put on council as we're doing something wrong, and I don't have any evidence that is the case apart from technical non-compliance with the policy."

He said the council has a $1.4B capital programme over the next 10 years and needs to be "forward focused".

Jim, echoing sentiments voiced by Penny, said the issues over procurement were caused by the council growing very quickly - "and a couple of things got loose along the way".

He said the six-month review, conducted by the council's Audit, Risk and Finance Committee will address the issues.

"It's timely we now address it, and this programme enables us to do that."

Quentin also outlined the steps that have been taken to improve the processes, including: external oversight and auditing of the major capital works programmes (Three Waters and roading projects); the appointment of the procurement officer; the report; the six-month review; and potentially publishing all contracts online for the public, redacted for commercial sensitivity.

The interim changes were passed in five separate motions. All councillors voted in favour, except Nikki who opposed them all, and Niamh who opposed three of the five.

PHOTOS: Supplied