Dubbo Council spends more than $12,000 rectifying old Code of Conduct complaints

Although no new complaints were received during the reporting period for the second quarter, new expenses were incurred in the continued resolution of previously submitted complaints, amounting to, $12,372.50 with ongoing costs unknown.

Councillor Matthew Wright said it was refreshing to see a positive report for council after the issues with fluoridation of Dubbo's water system and the failure of the potable pipes project.

"Obviously the cost to council is pretty significant when we look at the past history of code of conducts to our new council," he said.

"Six months into the seat and we have a pretty clean sheet, I'm pretty happy with that and proud to be amongst the group and seeing now we are doing the right thing by the public."

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With 23 code of conduct complaints between March and April in 2021 and over $23,000 of rate payers money spent looking into them, Dubbo Regional Council can now breathe a little easier with the second quarter results.

This is the second quarterly report during the current elected body, with both quarters receiving zero complaints.

Whilst no new complaints have been received in the last two quarters, expenditure has continued as the finalisation of prior complaints is occurring.

In a report to council it stated that staffing resources remained high this quarter to finalise some of the outstanding complaints that were received prior to this reporting period, or the actions arising.

In a report on the first quarter of 2022, presented by Dubbo Regional Council's executive manager of governance and internal control's Abbey Rouse, she stated the procedures for the Administration of the Model Code of Conduct requires statistics to be reported to Council annually.

As part of the on boarding program, councillors undertook Code of Conduct training on January, 14 2022, delivered by Kath Roach of Sinc Solutions.

Council is required to report its annual Code of Conduct statistics to the Office of Local Government each December.

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