|
Item 8.1 - Attachment 2 |
External
audit letter to Parramatta City Council concerning expenditure of the
Economic Development Special Levy |
ATTACHMENT 2
The Parramatta City
Council Lord Mayor 18th August, 2008
ATTENTION: Dr Robert Lang
CEO
(
Dear Dr Lang
We have been asked by the Parramatta City Council (PCC) Economic Development Team (ED Team) to audit review the Economic Development Partnerships Plan’s delivery of their 2007-08 projects and advise as to whether the Special Levy money which has been spent on these projects was an investment. The cash funds expended on these projects came from a Special Rate levied on the business community and thus it was thought that the best people to assess whether the expenditure had been well spent was a group of business people.
The PCC ED Team is a very small team of only five people and comprises Mike Thomas, Ildi Vukovich, Serge Markovtzev, Solaire Eggert, and Michelle Macgregor-Owen. Dr Kuchler informed the panel that the cash investment in the projects was in most cases, a small component of the resources needed to complete a project and that the success of most projects was due to the significant commitment of the PCC ED Team to contribute in kind resources to the projects. It is worth noting that in addition to their normal work load for the PCC, this team has delivered these 24 Economic Development Partnership projects within the 12 month period and that at least 8 of these projects involved significant collection of data and content before publication and then distribution within the community. A further three projects involved the organizing of significant expos’. In addition, many projects involved calling for tenders and developing formal partnerships, both tasks being a very labour intensive and bureaucratic process for local government.
Their efforts were formally recognized three times last year by
winning two finalist positions in the Economic Development Australia national
awards and through a Partnership Award from the
Dr Kuchler, who had a personal involvement with the team over the 12 months wishes to personally put on record the very high level of commitment and effort that this dedicated team contributed to the projects and without many hours put in, without remuneration, before and after their formal PCC work hours, as well as on weekends, the projects would not have been delivered.
The audit review was held on
Dr Deborah Kuchler (Chair)
Dr Geoffrey Lee,
Martin Collins,
Stephanie Dale,
Several days prior to the 30th July meeting, the panel was presented with a very well prepared dossier describing all the projects, giving examples of their delivered outcomes and listing the cash expenditure that was taken from the Special Levy for each project. The PCC Economic Development team prepared the dossier and they should be commended for its quality.
At the beginning of the review meeting, it was agreed by the panel that the overall task and objective of the session was to perform an audit via an investment and performance review against the materials, events and projects undertaken by the PCC ED Team in the 2007/08 financial year. We were to assess each projects success in accordance with the stated objectives as per the information supplied.
OVERALL INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE
Overall, the review panel felt that:
· The Parramatta Economic Development Projects were well managed
· The projects met and often exceeded the stated objectives
· The panel particularly noted that this was the first time the program has been designed and delivered in this manner, a credit to the exceptional performance of the Economic Development Team.
· The performance report clearly articulates the significant economic benefits of the projects that leverage in-kind donations from the business community, often with relatively minor-cash contributions from Council.
· Positive feedback from the business community support individual projects contribution to the Parramatta’s economy.
· It is worth noting that economic and corporate partnerships both with Parramatta City Council prior to this program were virtually non-existent and that the program has facilitated new partnerships between the business community and PCC.
· Given that this is the first year of the program and that economic and corporate partnerships have been involved in the majority of projects, it is an encouraging indication of the potential of future economic developments from further expansion of the programs.
So, in summary, the panel felt that the PCC ED Team had done a good job in investing the Special Levy funds into economic development projects and should be commended for successful delivery of the inaugural year of the program.
The panel was also asked to make recommendations for improvements for next year and some suggestions are given at the end of this document.
INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE BY PROJECT
Economic
Development Theme/category: Marketing
the City
1. Project Deliverable: Dining Guide
The panel regards
the Dining Guide as a complement and necessary part of the marketing collateral
that complements Discover Parramatta. The Dining Guide was very professionally
presented and it was felt that it did not compete with any other dining
information. It presented
Suggestion:
Maybe the product needs to become more self-sustaining in the future and perhaps there is a need to look to explore opportunities to gain revenue through additional “upgrade” advertising. However, the panel realizes that the disadvantage of such a strategy means that the publication would lose its differentiation and become more like the Discover Parramatta dining guide which is flooded with advertising; it would also lose its compact “guide” feel as it would become much larger in size to accommodate the increased content. Distribution channels appeared to be limited and should in future be expanded. However, the cost will go up as more copies will need to be printed and costs to get the publication to distributors will also go up. In conclusion, some thought needs to be given to whether the product will continue to be produced by PCC or some other self sustaining model. Dr Kuchler commented that she is aware that this issue is being looked at by the PCC ED Team.
2. Project
Deliverable: Marketing the City
Brochure
The panel
thought that this was a highly successful initiative that met its objectives
and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
3. Project
Deliverable: State of the City Address
The panel thought that the initiatives taken in the project to expand this event are commendable and the involvement of Western Sydney Business Connection is a key element. Such projects need to support local business associations that support the local business community.
The panel
thought that this was a highly successful initiative that met its objectives
and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
4. Project
Deliverable: Marketing the City DVD
A need that was
consistently identified by every Business Partnership meeting that the PCC ED
Team held with business people and the community was the need for increased
marketing of
Only two members of the panel had experience with the costs of DVD production and their views on the cost to produce DVD’s varied and so there was insufficient budget detail in the supporting documentation to come to a conclusion. It is understood that much of the budget was spent on content capture, to create animations and to produce 1,000 DVD copies, which may explain the costs involved in the production of the DVD. It is also understood that the PCC ED Team could not contribute much in kind assistance to the project since they did not have the equipment for content capture or the skills for DVD production and so the whole project was outsourced.
Dr Kuchler informed the panel that tenders were called for the work and that the panel of people who chose the successful bidder had representatives on it from the community including the Western Sydney Business Connection. The chosen applicant was the best value for money.
Given that the DVD is still under production and the panel has not sighted the deliverable, the panel reserves its decision until it can view the finished product.
5. Project Deliverable: Corporate
Relocations
The panel
thought that this was a highly successful initiative that met its objectives
and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
6. Project
Deliverable: Marketing Professional
Services
The panel thought that this was a highly successful initiative that met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
7. Project
Deliverable: Tourism Promotion
The panel thought that this was a highly successful initiative that met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
8. Project
Deliverable: Business Census
The panel thought that this project was valuable and a good investment of the Special Levy money.
The panel thought that the project was so important that they would like to see it continued with an ongoing plan and on-going resource commitment.
9. Project
Deliverable: Community Business
Newsletter
The panel felt that there would probably be better projects to spend the Special Levy on than this one as the publication combines business and residential information, thus giving mixed messages and potentially confusing the target audience/s. It was suggested that the articles may be more economically distributed through local newspapers.
Dr Kuchler has since got more information from the PCC ED Team who informed her that the publication was encouraged by the Parramatta Chamber of Commerce and they encouraged a publication that merged both business and resident information. The publication has also been publicly commended by The Chamber.
10. Project
Deliverable: Business Section on PCC
Website
The panel thought that this was a highly successful initiative that met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
11. Project
Deliverable: Bizfacts
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
12. Project Deliverable: Business
Showcase
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
Economic
Development Theme/category: Supporting
Employment Growth
13. Project
Deliverable: New Work City Website
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
14. Project
Deliverable: Census Profiles and Atlas
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
15. Project
Deliverable: Community Hub
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
Economic
Development Theme/category: Fostering
Innovation
16. Project
Deliverable: Fostering Innovation
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
17. Project
Deliverable: Chamber of Commerce
Excellence Awards
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
It was noted that the support of Parramatta Chamber of Commerce is essential to support the local business community.
18. Project
Deliverable: Young Achievement Australia
The panel felt that, while a commendable project, this project may not be totally aligned to the PEDC objectives and suggested not supporting it in the future or alternatively, ask the business community for their feedback on supporting this project. It is suggested that community support funds may be the most appropriate source of continued funding.
19. Project
Deliverable: Smart Rinse
The panel
thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a
good investment of the Special Levy money.
20. Project
Deliverable: New Enterprise Incentive
Scheme (NEIS)
The panel
thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a
good investment of the Special Levy money.
It was felt that the report was suitable to the required scope of works and the fee paid. A suggestion is that the report could have been more comprehensive in various analyses of existing data.
21. Project
Deliverable: TBL Carmellia
The panel
thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a
good investment of the Special Levy money.
22. Project
Deliverable: Sustainable Expo
The panel thought
that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good
investment of the Special Levy money.
Sustainable Expo: Successful initiative and met objectives Sustainable Business Management Program: It was felt that this was an expensive program given that a total of $20,000+ was spent to generate only a $1000 approx in savings but the panel was unsure how much this was governed by the Sustainable Business Management Program and how much control the PCC ED Team have over reviewing the program.
23. Project
Deliverable: Corporate Cluster
The panel thought that this was an important initiative, met its objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
Economic
Development Theme/category: Ferry
Research
24. Project
Deliverable: Parramatta River Ferry
Market Research
The panel regarded that the project was a worthwhile project to invest in using Special Levy funds, but felt that the report was too general in nature and therefore did not add significant insight into the economic development needs of the CBD businesses.
The panel has delivered its decisions above and has concluded that:
· 20 projects out of a total of 24 or 84% were an important initiative, met their objectives and was a good investment of the Special Levy money.
· The remaining 4 project all met their objectives, but one of the had not finished so we were
unable to draw a conclusion; one we recommend no further support under the
Special Levy program; one we said was did not contribute sufficiently high enough to economic development but this is
contrary to the PCC Chamber of Commerce’s opinion/support for the project; and
one is a good investment but the content needs to be improved.
Suggestions:
1. The in-kind resources contributed to the project by the PCC ED Team need to be recorded against each project in future so that the business community can see the degree to which their Special Levy has been leveraged to obtain outcomes for Parramatta.
2. Dr Kuchler is aware that the above projects stem largely from the suggestions and feedback from the public Partnership meetings between PCC ED Team and the community and thus it might be worth including a list of the suggestions that arose from these meetings in the papers of future audit reviews. For eg. This is what the business community suggested that we do and this is what we have done.
3. Whilst the incredible effort and dedication of the PCC ED Team is acknowledge, it might be worth them giving some consideration to fewer projects with bigger budgets next year in order to obtain some additional help to deliver them and not to have to rely so heavily on the in-kind contributions from individuals working in their own time.
4. In order to make it easy to audit the
projects in future, it might be easier for the panel, if some of the objectives
of the projects are listed as key performance indicators (KPI’s) and then the
criteria for assessment are very clear to the panel. However, it is acknowledged that these KPI’s
will still be very subjective due to the nature of the projects
themselves.
The panel would like to thank Parramatta City Council for the opportunity to provide a review of the Parramatta Economic Development Team in the 2007/08 and congratulate the Parramatta City Council Economic Development Team for their excellent effort in wisely investing the Special Levy funds based on business and community suggestions through a consultative process.
Yours sincerely
Dr Deborah Kuchler (Panel Chair)
For the Panel including Dr Geoffrey Lee, Martin
Collins, and Stephanie Dale.