Last week Council Staff presented a draft financial report for Tauranga City Venues Ltd – Baypark, this reported a large loss of $1.645m for the year to 30/6/2010. The Council's original budget was a $30,000 profit for the year.
Included in the reported loss was a payment received from TECT of $2.0m that is meant to be towards the cost to build The Sports & Exhibition Centre (TISEC) at Baypark, this is not income at all.
Council borrowed all the money to buy Baypark and that debt is not all in the reports presented and so interest paid is understated by about $350,000 also, this is inappropriate reporting because the true debt is not shown and the losses made at Baypark are well understated. The true loss would be about $4.0m for the year if correctly reported.
There is no option but for Council to keep on pouring money into it every year.
Baypark is a commercial activity and does not and has never been eligible for rates remission of currently about $80,000pa, this would only make the loss higher.
I have had all council reporting of the end of yearbooks checked by a forensic accountant that works with a number of courts proceeding as a technical witness out of Auckland.
I have asked Tauranga City Council in the past for a break down of Baypark's rates and have been denied. A letter from CEO Stephen Town, which stated I could not have that information as it commercially sensitive...
The purchase and losses since are a disgrace to Ratepayers; those responsible should be held accountable for their decisions. (abridged)
Cr Hayden Evans, Ohauiti.