Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) has closed out the 2022/23 financial year, with less than a one per cent variance on its revised capital expenditure budget.
In hitting the target, TRC Finance and Business Strategy Committee Portfolio Lead Cr Kerry Shine explained how Council had implemented new strategies to ensure it achieved this goal.
“Given the current economic environment and the way prices have fluctuated so much over the past couple of years, this is an excellent result from our staff,” he said.
“When you also take into account the number of vacancies and supply chain issues which we’ve had to manage, much like most organisations at the moment, our staff deserve a lot of credit.
“Historically, Council has found it challenging hitting this target, and has been unable to spend our full capital expenditure despite the best efforts of the organisation.
“Our senior management put measures in place to look at how this could be addressed and it’s pleasing to see how well this has worked which is a credit to all our staff.”
The capital expenditure budget for the 2022/23 financial year was $173,064,270 with the final spend coming in at $171,376,569.
“Our community should feel reassured to know the organisation is making good on its promise to the community for the delivery of capital works,” Cr Shine said.
“Our residents should also be pleased with the amount of money which has been kept within the Toowoomba Region thanks to our strong focus on local spend.
“This has been backed up by our goal to pay suppliers within 14 days. We have achieved 79% of this internal target which benefits the business community.
“In the 2022/23 financial year, Council spent $163 million locally.
“This works out to 56% of our budget and while this is just shy of our internal target of 60%, it’s a fair result given there are a number of significant projects on our books which requires Council to engage in external contracts with suppliers that are not available in the Toowoomba Region.
“With these large projects taking place across a number of years, it’s likely our local spend will be lower during this period, however wherever possible, Council will push for local sub-contractors and supplies to be used at every opportunity.”
