Councillor Paul Snaidero raised a question at the most recent council meeting, asking for itemised and backdated lists to be presented to the public and council so individual expenses for the most recent financial year could be scrutinised. 

While council currently publishes lists of expenses quarterly, individual, itemised claims are not yet available to the public.

General Manager Brett Stonestreet said a new form of reporting expenses will be available in for the next financial year. 

“The consensus agreement with councillors is that the introduction of the new format for reporting expenses will commence as from July 1 2018 i.e. the start of the 2018/19 financial year,” he said. 

“Council's ledger has been re-formatted for the 2018/19 year to capture information on a councillor-by-councillor basis.”

Cr Paul Snaidero said he was worried about fact the councillor’s expense budget had not been backdated, saying his chief concern “is about being transparent and being accurate”. 

“Let’s have it fully transparent, fully open. If I’m going to spend money, I’m going to be accountable for it,” he said. 

“We’re held to account for everything, but we have no dissection – apart from specific groups of expenses like telephone expenses.” 

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Mr Stonestreet said the additional resources required to track past expenses “is not justified”. 

“In terms of the current 2017/18 financial year, additional staff resources would be required to track every past transaction processed in order to prepare the expenses report in the new format,” he said.

“The cost to undertake this task is not justified.”

Both Cr Snaidero and Griffith Business Chamber President Paul Pierotti disagree. 

“Council has never ever, in my term as a council, declined to give the General Manager extra resources … he’s had the resources to do the job, why are we finding ourselves in this position now?” Cr Snaidero said. 

Mr Pierotti said he saw the need to backdate individual expenses as a legal requirement and commitment to transparency. 

“Unfortunately this is an obligation for transparency from legislation. It’s compliance to transparency for the community,” he said. 

“He needs to find those resources and he needs to do so immediately.” 

Mr Stonestreet also confirmed the Mayoral credit card will also be reported in council’s new format from July 1.