The mayor of New Plymouth, Neil Holdom has publicly taken personal responsibility for a “typo” in the council’s annual plan that could have resulted in a $20 million loss in revenue.
Last month, the council passed a resolution stating that the rates figures in its annual plan were inclusive of GST. However, it was later discovered that the figures were actually exclusive of GST, thus creating a discrepancy.
The council has since moved quickly to correct the mistake and issued an apology to ratepayers for the confusion caused.
“In preparing the final report for adoption, a member of the team pasted the GST-exclusive numbers into the final report where all fees and charges were confirmed. They should have included the GST-inclusive numbers,” Mayor Neil Holdom said.
“If somebody took the council to court to seek a judicial review of rates or charges, the court would’ve identified the schedule was incorrect and the GST component, which is about $20 million, would not have been legally chargeable.”
Acting council chief executive Sarah Downs also shared her sentiments and said, “It was a typographical error, so we asked for council under Section 46 of the Legislation Act to correct that error, and as a result, it’s not impacting any rates whatsoever.”
Rates were set at 9.9%.
Downs said she was uncertain about how the mistake occurred but confirmed that the team is actively investigating its cause.
“There is a level of people saying the correct checks were not put in place, so we’re busy in the process of making sure what extra checks we need to do.”
In 2015, the council also encountered issues due to a “typo” involving approximately 2 million rubbish bags.
Instead of printing the council’s own contact number, the bags mistakenly featured the phone number of a local Thai restaurant.
Calls intended for the council were instead directed to the restaurant, disturbing the restaurant’s ability to manage orders and bookings.