An independent review has found that Wellington Water has been lax in its reporting, making it unclear how the water provider is using ratepayer money for pipe repairs.
The review was conducted by international company FieldForce4, following Wellington City Council’s decision to allocate an additional $2.3 million to its annual budget for regional water services, on the condition that Wellington Water part-funds this review.
The review made a number of key findings.
There were problems in the contracts between Wellington City Council, Wellington Water, and the contractor Fulton Hogan. These contracts reportedly failed to align with the councils’ overall objectives due to vague reporting requirements and performance measures.
Over the last three years, maintenance costs have risen by 71 percent, signaling inefficiencies in the management of resources.
The review made recommendations:
- A thorough review of the existing contract documents.
- Enhancements in contract management.
- Implementation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for contracts involving Wellington Water, Wellington City Council, and Fulton Hogan.
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau told State funded media RNZ that she was optimistic the recommendations could improve the performance of Wellington’s water network.
Wellington City Council’s CEO, Barbara McKerrow, acknowledged the recommendations, highlighting the need to support Wellington Water in finding efficiencies amidst growing service delivery costs and a backlog of leaks.
Wellington Water’s CEO, Tonia Haskell, admitted that some of the findings were valid and noted improvements have been made where possible. However, she pointed out that not all findings could be addressed as Wellington Water doesn’t have the mandate to make decisions on behalf of its shareholding councils. Haskell acknowledged the imperfect nature of the current operational model and agreed there was a need for sector reform to achieve ‘transformative change’ in regional water services.
Image credit: Robert Anderson
