I refer to a letter of S Paterson in last week's Sun dated 15/10/2010 and the TCC reply by Mr Begley.
The amounts stated by F Begley don't seem to add up, when all City Partner contributions are added up for 2007 to 2009 (three years) they total about $4.8m, of those $3.6m are from charitable organisations such as TECT, Lion Foundation, Perry Foundation and NZCT and so on. My questions are:
Would not these organisations contribute funds to worthy projects in the city anyway?
Mr Begley does not seem to have clearly answered the questions raised e.g. what is the 'cost” to ratepayers to run this scheme? Items such as his salary, social functions and so on should also be included?
In three years $123m is paid out by ratepayers for work and services, these same city partners contribute $1.2m to city partner schemes. How can ratepayers be assured that the procurement of these goods and services is fair and not added in?
Any good business will look to recover all of its costs and that includes the city partner contributions, perhaps the tendering process could be explained?
For the life of me I am having trouble seeing how my rates each year is better off with this city partner's scheme operating.
Allen Barnes, Tauranga.