Quick turnaround after annual report misfire by Bass Coast

THE Bass Coast Shire Council’s administration is set to put behind it the embarrassment last Wednesday of submitting an incomplete annual report for adoption by council when it calls an additional council meeting this Friday, October 30.

In a quick turnaround, after having to pull the key item from the council agenda at the last minute, at its October 21 meeting in Cowes, the administration will resubmit the annual report, presumably with formal certification from the Victorian Auditors General Office attached, at the 9.30am meeting.

According to the government's 'Preparing Council Annual Reports Guidelines 2024-25', councils must ensure the mayor presents its Annual Report at a Council meeting open to the public by October 31 each year.

While it’s likely to be a very brief meeting, the session will however be livestreamed.

Neither of the councillors on leave, Cr Mat Morgan and Cr Rochelle Halstead, will attend the meeting, although with the period of their election leave starting on Thursday this week, October 29, it may have had something to do with the meeting being called on the following day, with just one day left to spare.

It took a local resident, Graham Jolly, to highlight the anomaly to council, claiming the shire was operating outside the Local Government Act in seeking adopt an annual report without signed certification from the Office of the Auditor General.

As well as writing to council, Mr Jolly put the following question to council during Community Question time last Wednesday:

“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?

The CEO Greg Box has acknowledged the report could not have been adopted by council in the printed response to Mr Jolly’s question included in the Minutes.

“As the 2025–26 Annual Report cannot be finalised until the signed audit reports are received from the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, and the timing of receipt remains uncertain, officers recommend that Council delegate authority to the Chief Executive Officer to incorporate the final signed audit reports into the Annual Report and undertake any associated administrative amendments required to finalise the document.”

But this wasn’t the response provided by the CEO at the meeting.

Graham Jolly is interested to see how the council goes about adopting its annual report.

“It’s my understanding that they have to have a signed and certified report from VAGO actually in the document council is being asked to adopt. Maybe they’ve got that now,” he said.

But the council still doesn’t get a clean bill of health from Mr Jolly.

He has claimed that the council changed the reporting format of its 4th Quarterly Performance and Financial Report, ending 30 June 2026, making it difficult for the community to assess the financial performance of the council.

“As well as the 2025 budget figures, they are supported to include year-to-date actual expenditures and the variance but they didn’t do that, as has been the case in the previous quarterly reports, and those from previous year,” said Mr Jolly.

“They’ve changed that without a report and approval by council,” he said.

By 2pm on Wednesday, October 28, the shire had not yet posted a revised 2025-2026 Annual Report, offering ratepayers the opportunity of assessing the certified report from the Auditor General, before it goes forward for adoption by council.