There were two bright sides of the coin today as Auckland Council reported quarterly performance up to 31 March 2019.
Firstly, after nine months, $1.33 billion of the 10-year capital investment plan has been delivered. Approved last year, the $26 billion plan is the largest Auckland has ever seen.
Secondly, savings of $18.2 million have also been achieved against an annual target of $23 million.
“It’s a pleasing result and puts us in a strong position for the year end,” said Finance and Performance Committee Chair, Councillor Ross Clow.
“We’ve seen solid capital progress for the period with record investment delivered. Not only is this a $213 million increase from this time last year, importantly only 15% of this investment was financed via borrowing resulting in a debt to total asset ratio of 16.1%.
“It is also encouraging to see that organisation-wide evaluations have resulted in a number of cost-saving measures. Perhaps one of the best examples is using our size and scale to secure more favourable contract terms, a large contributing factor in the $5.3 million per year savings achieved in our utilities costs.”
Major capital projects include:
In addition to capital investment and progress on savings targets, a solid overall financial and operational performance was also reported:
Savings commitment to Auckland
As mentioned, savings of $18.2 million have also been achieved in the first nine months of the financial year.
“The third quarter results reflect we are well on track and have been achieved by better use of technology such as robotic processing of transactions and an increase in revenue through easy-to-use online booking systems for council facilities” says Councillor Desley Simpson, Deputy Chair Finance and Performance Committee.
“We’re confident that this year’s savings result is only the beginning of Council’s efficiency programme included in the 10-year Budget 2018-2028. We’ll continue to focus on delivering exceptional value and cost efficiency for Aucklanders.”
A summary of savings progress is as follows:
