A REPORT released by the Auditor General’s Office has revealed flaws in the rating practices of Melton City Council.
The Ratings Practices in Local Government report, released last week, audited 12 councils throughout Victoria including Melton and stated the council “had provided evidence of discussion of rating practices, but did not provide a formal published rating strategy that set out its decisions on rating issues”.
“In the absence of this mandatory requirement, there is limited assurance that councils can readily demonstrate the soundness and reasonableness of their rating decisions,” the report read.
“The councils that did not have a current rating strategy – Melton and Murrindindi – provided the required statutory disclosures on rates and charges in an appendix to their council budget.
“The statutory disclosures alone, however, do not provide a sufficient or comprehensive overview of the basis for a council’s rating decisions.”
The report revealed in 2011-12, Melton City Council had received the greatest number of submissions regarding rates, with 127 individual submissions.
In 2012-13 Melton proposed another major change to its rate structure and received 152 rate-related submissions.
The report also showed revenue amounts are increasing at a faster rate in outer metropolitan councils, like Melton, and said the increase was likely due to population growth and the need to invest in additional infrastructure.
In its recommendations the report advised the Department of Planning and Community Development to clarify and standardise key data reporting requirements.
“The reporting of rates and charges data by councils needs to be improved and, in many cases, standardised across municipalities so that ratepayers and the general community can readily interpret the information.”
The report also found most councils attributed rate increases to factors such as maintaining existing services, ‘cost shifting’, the landfill levy, and infrastructure maintenance and renewal.
Star contacted Melton City Council but did not receive a response before deadline.
