The latest figures for the Council’s June 30 position will be tabled at the July 26 Council meeting and show the Council has $652.2M in cash and investments with external borrowings of $313.3M as of June 30.
Total net return on the portfolio for Council in June, comprising entirely of interest earned, was $845k.
During June, principal loan repayments of $6.0M were repaid.
The recovery in Council’s General Fund continues to improve with a preliminary unrestricted cash balance of $121.7M at June 30, 2022, says Council.
There is still an unrestricted funds deficit of $38.54M in Water and Drainage funds.
This means Council still has to pay back $38.54M to the restricted funds accounts.
For the year June 30, 2022, Council is reporting a preliminary surplus of $46.4M (favourable to budget by $6.0M) for its net operating result, before capital grants and contributions.
This represents a positive turn-around of $117.1M from Council’s reported loss of $70.7M for the prior year, June 30, 2021.
Council was put in administration in October 2020 because of financial problems.
By June 30, 2021, the borrowings had increased to about $348M compared to $236.5M in 2020.
The administrators cut staff, sold assets, applied to IPART for rates and water rates increases.
Both the CEO David Farmer and Administrator Rik Hart spoke about the financial crisis being over when the April figures were tabled at the May 24 meeting.
“We have had tight reins on our financial management while we have been waiting for the outcomes of two IPART submissions, for ordinary rates and water, sewerage and stormwater drainage prices,” Mr Farmer said at the time.
“With both these determinations being made in just the last month, we now have a clear sight of Council’s long term financial position.
“Before that, we could not take for granted what Council’s revenue looked like for the next few years and responsibly reduced spending in some areas to account for this uncertainty.
“While we are currently performing better than budget, we have a high level of position vacancies, and we know this is causing difficulty in our delivery of services to our customers in a number of areas.
“Additionally, the delivery of some projects have been impacted by interruptions due to NSW Public Health Orders for COVID-19, materials shortage and wet weather; all contributing to reduced spending in some areas.
“Now that we have longer-term stability in our revenue, we can carefully reinvest these funds in the best ways to meet our community expectations of service delivery,” Mr Farmer said.
At that same meeting, Administrator, Rik Hart confirmed the forecasted surpluses would contribute to repaying the emergency loans over the next 10 years.
“I assure the community that the financial crisis of Central Coast Council is over, he said at the time.
“We have achieved one of the most significant financial turnarounds of any organisation in under 12 months.
“We put in place a financial recovery plan and have met all milestones and targets.
“Our task now is continuing our 10-year long-term financial plan that provides financial stability for the organisation,” Mr Hart said.
The agenda with all the latest figures are now on the council website and will be discussed at the July 26 meeting.
