Last week, Environment Southland’s finance and performance committee held a private session to discuss the topic of “bad debt to be written off.” General manager Patrick Ng revealed that the committee agreed to write off $10,000 owed by eight individuals, as part of their annual review of overdue debt.
Some of the debt was secured by a property lien and will be paid when the property changes hands, while the rest was deemed unrecoverable. The final decision to write off the debt will be made at a full council meeting.
Despite this write-off, Mr. Ng mentioned that the council is expected to end the financial year with a “modest” surplus. A finance report presented at the meeting indicated a forecasted surplus of $1.5 million, a significant improvement from the initial $1.2 million deficit projected in the budget.
This surplus was attributed to additional income from MBIE for flood resilience projects and lower staff costs resulting from vacancies following an organizational review that took place earlier this year. The review involved disestablishing 51 roles and creating 58 new positions.
• This article is part of LDR, local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
