Oopsie, council forgets to include key document in annual report

THE administration of the Bass Coast Shire Council has neglected to include a signed Auditor-General’s report with the 2025-2026 Annual Report prepared for adoption by council at its Wednesday, October 21 meeting.

It’s a statutory requirement of the annual report.

But it appears that it took local council watcher, Graham Jolly, to point out the omission to council, potentially saving them significant embarrassment and loss of time.

Following the publication of the agenda for last Wednesday’s council meeting and associated attachments of almost 900 pages on the council website last Friday afternoon, Mr Jolly noticed the missing document and submitted a question to council on Sunday night for inclusion in ‘Community Question’ time at the meeting.

His question was as follows:

“The 2025/26 Annual Report is missing the Victorian Auditor-General Audit Report for the public and councillors to read. This is a critical missing report. Why is council presenting the 2025/26 Annual Report to a meeting seeking approval knowing the 2025/26 Annual Report is incomplete?”

However, when it came time to answer the question, during an extended Community Question time dominated by two issues, the controversial Short Stay fee hike and the application for a McDonalds’ Restaurant on Phillip Island, no details were provided.

“This question will be addressed in the meeting when council considers item 8.2 on the agenda,” said CEO Greg Box.

However, while it was “addressed” it wasn’t “considered".

“We have a motion to defer the annual report 2025-26 item to a future meeting of council to allow a formal certification from the Victoria Auditor General Office. Can I have somebody move?” asked the Mayor, Cr Brett Tessari from the chair.

“Yes, I'm happy to move that, Mr Mayor,” said Cr Thomson and after being seconded by Cr Temby, the matter was put to the vote without explanation.

In fact, according to the original motion, included in the agenda for the meeting, council was going to be asked to adopt the annual report, without the Auditor-General’s certification and to delegate authority to the CEO “to add the Victorian Auditor General's Office statements into the Annual Report 2025-2026 once they are received, presumably without being sighted by council.

Mr Jolly told the Sentinel-Times, prior to Wednesday’s meeting that it’s contrary to the Local Government Act for council to allow this to happen. Ultimately, that level of embarrassment was also avoided.

Mr Jolly had also raised that issue with the shire’s administration as well over the weekend.

“Under which delegation instrument, and which part of Section 11, may the CEO add the Auditor-General statements after Council has resolved? Please table the instrument.”

The question wasn’t included in Community Question time.

The incident has made tight deadlines for completing these statutory reporting tasks that little bit tighter and with a requirement that council ensures the mayor presents the annual report at a council meeting open to the public by October 31, get set for an additional meeting of council in the next week.

Its scheduling will depend on when council can get a certified copy of its accounts back from the Auditor-General’s office.