This week the TCC City Services manager Ian McDonald reported to Councillors that the proposed Meerkat Sirens had 'difficulties.”
The rest of the city seemed to realise that well prior to Christmas and in fact the point was made abundantly clear when Steve Morris and others provided a 'Sound-off” challenge that TCC and Meerkat failed to appear for, that spoke volumes for the public about the effectiveness of the Meerkat installation early in the piece.
It is also apparent that TCC noted the costs of the Tactical Sirens proposal were higher than actually the case apparently in part so as to remove them from consideration early in the TCC staff managed tendering process.
Bigger questions arise about the TCC tendering process, it seems that the process is flawed fatally that the obvious becomes obscure and the obscure becomes reality.
TCC ratepayers should be very concerned about these flaws, in large contracts the discrepancies could amount to millions of excess spending apparently on genuine needs but the price is high and the recipient gets less than that really needed.
The TCC process for reviewing tenders called 'Weighted attributes” places to much importance on which boxes TCC staff chooses to tick or not, an overhaul is needed of this urgently to avoid further financial hemorrhaging and more debt at TCC.

Ian Stevenson, Tauranga.