NAMBUCCA Valley Council’s Chief Financial Officer Evan Webb presented two key documents at Council’s last general meeting of the year.

The Annual Financial Statement and the Auditor’s Report reveal Council’s strong financial position, with increases in net assets, cash and investments, and equity.

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“Council is in a good position with a Net Operating Result for the year of $20.7 million, $3.9 million higher than last year,” Quentin Wong, representing the Auditor General of NSW told the Council after reviewing the reports.

“Much was due to increased revenue from rates and charges,”

Mr Wong complimented Council’s financial team on their professionalism and timely delivery of the reports and pointed to the clean opinion they had supplied.

He said cash and investments for the Council had increased from $77m to $81m with $63.6m being externally restricted.

“Restricted Funds mainly consist of developer contributions, water and sewer funds, unspent grants and the like.

“These monies are restricted because they can only be spent for a specific purpose,” he told the councillors.

The year’s operating result before capital grants and contributions income was a surplus of $1,214,000 compared to a surplus of $2,300,000 for the previous year while total equity increased to $665,914,000 from the previous year of $616,363,00.

As part of an audit of the Financial Statements, the council’s performance across six Local Government Key Financial Indicators was measured, revealing that it has met five of the six benchmark ratios set by the Office of Local Government.

Council did not achieve the benchmark for Own Source Operating Revenue in 2024 but has been improving in this area for the past three years.

This ratio measures fiscal flexibility and the degree to which a council depends on external funding like grants.

“It’s not unusual for a small regional council to not meet this benchmark,” explained Council’s General Manager Bede Spannagle.

“With the level of grant funding we get, our own source revenue is quite fixed so we will always struggle to meet this benchmark,”

Two other benchmark ratios, the Operating Performance Ratio for Water and for Sewer Funds, were met by Council for the first time in three years, according to the reports.

By Ned COWIE