A source claiming to be a Logan City Council insider has accused their employer of wasting almost $35 million on a technology project.
But council refuses to confirm how much money it has spent.
The source contacted MyCity Logan following a recent article about the likelihood of another record rate hike.
The insider said one of the biggest contributors to council’s rate increases was “the incompetence of the council in managing their technology projects”.
“Their digital transformation program has been running for three years and has yet to deliver anything,” the source claimed.
“The total budget was over $70m, and almost half has been spent, all on expensive consultants and contractors.”
The source claimed a company of 10 staff, previously contracted by council, were each earning $1600 a day.
Council refused to say how much money has been spent on the project, which started in 2022, or what its budget is, as it is “commercial in confidence”.
Logan mayor Jon Raven said the “multi-year” program would allow council to be more efficient, responsive, resilient and customer focused.
He said this would save ratepayers money in the long-term, providing them better services at a lower cost.
“This is important in today’s world where customers have greater expectations about easy-to-use digital services, but at the same time there’s new risks to manage as a result of increased activity in cyber security and fraud,” Cr Raven said.
“As part of getting the program off the ground, we’ve introduced a whole of council approach to deliver services more efficiently.”
According to the mayor, the key highlights of the program so far include:
- Making council’s core systems more stable and efficient to strengthen its service to the community.
- Increasing connectivity between council staff, suppliers and residents to improve service speed.
- Reducing immediate cyber security and fraud risk to protect council and resident information.
What a waste of ratepayer’s money. the mayor says it will be cheaper in the long run. I don’t think so they never go down he’s probably exempt paying rates. I put in a complaint 3 months ago about the trees on the nature strip and for some Soil. I rang Theresa lanes office and hasn’t even replied this is what we are paying for.