The Queensland Audit Office’s (QAO) damning 2025 Final Management Report for Douglas Shire Council, which detailed significant shortcomings with its procurement practices, has been presented at the Council’s Ordinary Meeting.
In a statement following the meeting, Douglas Shire Mayor, Lisa Scomazzon (pictured) said, “Council takes these matters extremely seriously. Our policies and the law exist to ensure transparency, accountability and value for money in all purchasing activities.
“Compliance is non-negotiable. As custodians of public funds, we have a responsibility to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity,” she said.
As part of its work, the Audit Office selected eight contracts to test whether the procurement process complied with Council’s procurement policy and relevant local government regulations. For three of the contracts selected, the QAO said Council could not provide evidence to demonstrate adherence to key contracting principles such as value for money and effective competition.
“Council could not provide the employment contract, nor evidence that the performance of the contractor was assessed prior to the extensions being approved. There is a lack of documentation demonstrating how Council achieved value for money with this arrangement,” it stated.
In another example examined by the Audit Office, the Council awarded a contract to a former employee’s company through Local Buy to cover arrangements while an existing employee was on annual leave.
“The former employee’s company was the only supplier that was notified of the tender within the Local Buy portal, and the tender was open for just four days. Council could not provide the signed contract, nor documentation to support how it assessed or approved this supplier. In addition, the conflicts of interest forms were not signed,” the QAO said.
It also found the ex-employee had earned approximately three times more than their pay rate when employed by Council.
For the Audit team, the implications were clear: “Council is exposed to risk of not being able to demonstrate compliance with sound contracting principles including how value for money is achieved,” it stated.
“In addition, Council has not complied with its own policies or the Local Government Regulation 2012, which means that sound contracting principles have not always been documented. This could result in contracts being entered into that do not provide the highest quality goods or services or best value for money.
“When perceived or actual conflicts of interest are not obtained and effectively managed this increases the risk
of fraudulent procurement activities.”
The Office recommended that the Council strengthen procurement documentation to clearly demonstrate compliance with sound contracting principles and Local Government Regulations.
In her statement, Mayor Scomazzon clarified that, with respect to the procurement matter, it was Council that originally identified the issues that were subsequently included in the report.
“Council initiated the necessary management actions prior to the release of QAO’s final report and has continued to work collaboratively to ensure procurement issues are addressed in a manner that meet both Council and QAO expectations into the future,” she said.
In its Ordinary Meeting, the Mayor and Councillors reaffirmed their confidence in the CEO and executive leadership team, commending them on “tackling historical issues and also noting the hard work will continue”.
“The new elected member team, combined with a new executive team has a mandate for transformational change for the benefit of residents and ratepayers, the hard work has commenced and as demonstrated today, the results will be openly and transparently disclosed,” Mayor Scomazzon said.
