Kalgoorlie mayor Glenn Wilson applauds city for owning ‘formula error’ and not ‘sweeping it under carpet’

Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor Glenn Wilson has applauded city staff for owning up to a $1.95 million “formula error” in the budget, instead of “sweeping it under the carpet”. Council unanimously passed a budget amendment at Tuesday night’s meeting, cutting capital projects, after the error was found in the 2024-25 budget review document which would have left the city with a deficit of $2.1m, rather than a surplus of $248,000. Mr Wilson spoke at Tuesday night’s council meeting and congratulated the city for being transparent and accountable instead of burying it with “creative accounting”. “An error (can) happen at any time,” he said. “But for our staff to be able to take ownership and accountability in relation to this matter needs to be applauded. “This item could have also been swept under the carpet, dare I say it, by some creative accounting on the back end, but it just didn’t happen. “Yes, there has been some criticism of that, but how can you be critical when you take ownership, accountability and show transparency?” Councillor Terrence Winner said nobody liked mistakes, especially ones that affected a budget. “While this is a big one, it’s an error which doesn’t mean a cut to any services or one that has put the city at any risk or in an unsustainable situation,” he said. “It is an error where, based on the information provided, the city and council thought we had more funds to spend than we did, so planned to commence a number of projects, which now that has become known that we don’t have the same budget, will now be delayed to the next budget in a few months time. “The cash hasn’t been spent and the city isn’t out of money, we just can’t do as much as we would have liked.” The city will now reduce its spending this financial year on the Kalgoorlie Golf Course dam surface water capture project by $1.7m, spending just $100,000. Mr Wilson told the Kalgoorlie Miner he was not concerned about the impact any further delays to water capture projects would cause the city. “We need to conduct the proper planning and execution, so with the added time — and the rainfall we have had recently — it’s allowed our engineers to look in a lot more detail when we do have a rain event, how the engineering aspect will work,” he said. “We are still starting the process, it’s just rather than have the project fully funded from now, we’ve funded the planning piece and then will continue on with that process as part of the budget from 2025-26.” The motion also approved spending $1.4m less on parks and reserves lighting replacement works, $1.1m less on the Kingsbury Park youth precinct, $800,000 less on Goldfields Oasis buildings purchase/improvements, $320,000 less on the building of carpark facilities and $250,000 less on kerbing construction and reconstruction. Also, the city not spend money this financial year on the Trans Access DRFAWA project ($1.5m had been allocated), the golf course tank and pump shed ($750,000 had been allocated), and the purchase/improvement of staff housing ($180,000 had been allocated). Two projects which had no money allocated will now get $200,000 in funding — the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport master plan, and endowment block power upgrade. The purchase of plant and equipment for the airport will also get $575,570 instead of $395,570, $350,000 will be spent on the Goldfields Arts Centre carpark roof rather than $250,000, and $50,000 has been allocated to the intersection of Wilson and Macdonald streets. All these amendments mean transfers will boost the city’s reserve balance by $5.27m to almost $30.4m at June 30.