3. Local councils

Audited councils accepted 4 of our recommendations from 2019 in full and one in part.

Baw Baw, Casey and Moonee Valley completed all their agreed actions in response to our recommendations, while Queenscliffe and Horsham completed 4 of their agreed actions and still need to complete 2 of their agreed actions.

Only Casey and Queenscliffe set target dates for their agreed actions. Both experienced some delays due to organisational changes or constraints. 

2. Local Government Victoria

LGV accepted 3 of our recommendations from 2019 in full and 2 in part. It completed 4 of its 5 agreed actions but missed target dates for 3 agreed actions due to the impacts of COVID-19, Victorian bushfires and the introduction of the Act in 2020. It has not completed its agreed action to expand the benchmarking capability on the KYC website.

LGV’s agreed actions to align LGPRF data with other state agencies and investigate how LGPRF indicators can better reflect the full costs, quality, appropriateness and outcomes of council services only partially address our recommendations.

1. Our key findings

What we examined

Our review followed 2 lines of inquiry: 

1. progress in implementing actions agreed in response to our 2019 recommendations

2. causes of delay in implementing recommendations, where applicable.

To assess this, we examined the 6 entities we audited in our 2019 engagement: