HIGH-profile new Mildura councillor Stefano de Pieri is pushing for the creation of a skills register to give “a little bit of positive discrimination” favouring local consultants and contractors for council projects.
The celebrity cook said he was concerned that “too much” work on local projects was being awarded to out-of-towners.
“If we have the talent in this community to work on projects, then we should be looking to them first to do the work,” he said.
“We need to have a serious look at establishing a register of local skilled workers.
“There could be a little bit of positive discrimination to giving our local consultants and experts more work here, instead of looking outside of this region so much.
“I certainly believe we have the capabilities here for local consultants and contractors to work on major local projects.”
Earlier this month, Sunraysia Daily revealed just over $4 million was spent on consultancy fees for stage 1 of the Mildura Riverfront project.
Only seven of the 26 consultants used on the project were locals.
The Daily sent follow-up questions to the council about what other consultancy fees had been paid so far on stage 1 of the Mildura South Regional Sporting Precinct (MSRSP), as well as the Mildura Arts and Cultural Precinct redevelopment that was completed nearly a decade ago.
However, the council’s senior staff efused to provide the figures.
In a statement, the council said that “48-55 per cent of contractors working on the Mildura South Regional Sporting Precinct are locals”.
It also said that 78 per cent of the contractors who worked on the cultural precinct redevelopment were locals.
“In terms of costs, about 60 per cent of the project went to local businesses (or) contractors, however this is an estimate only as the subcontractor payments were managed by the head builder,” the council said in the statement.
But there were no details of how much had been spent on consultants.
The refusal to provide key information on where ratepayers’ money was being spent flies in the face of the council’s charter.
On Page 5 of the council’s 2019-20 annual report, it said its values included “transparency” and “accountability”.
“We will be responsible for our actions,” it said.
Cr Ian Arney said the council needed to stand by its core values.
“Transparency is part of the council’s charter – and you’d expect them to back up that commitment to the community,” he said.
