Greater Shepparton City Council will meet for an additional meeting on Tuesday, May 2 that seems aimed at installing Cleanaway as the major winner from a waste tender process awarding contracts worth more than $75 million.
At a meeting in April, City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali’s deciding vote was required to firstly dump a recommendation that ASX-listed Cleanaway and Geelong-based Western Composting be awarded contracts for an initial seven and a half years, with options for a further seven and a half years.
His deciding vote was then again required to pass a motion committing the council to exploring a new procurement process.
Cr Fern Summer was absent from the meeting on April 11 and her vote may prove crucial at the meeting on Tuesday.
Previously, along with Cr Sali, councillors Anthony Brophy, Greg James and Ben Ladson voted not to follow the original recommendation and award the contract to Cleanaway, opting for a new process.
Councillors Seema Abdullah, Sam Spinks, Dinny Adem and Geoff Dobson were in favour of the contracts being awarded to Cleanaway and Western Composting.
The original recommendation that Cleanaway be awarded the kerbside bin collection, handling and disposal contract ahead of local company Foott Waste was publicly criticised by a number of the region’s prominent figures, saying the Goulburn Valley economy would experience greater benefits from the appointment of a local firm.
Cleanaway is embroiled in ongoing disputes with unions in multiple states, has been fined multiple times for environmental breaches and has struggled to meet the obligations of existing contracts in a Melbourne municipality.
Now, Cr Abdullah has given notice of her intent to move that the rescind motion adopted at the April 11 meeting, which abandoned the Collective Hume Tender Award process, itself be dumped.
If that is successful, council officers have then recommended that Cleanaway be awarded the kerbside contract and Western Composting the FOGO, or food organics green organics contract.
In the executive summary accompanying the recommendation, councillors are warned that Recycling Victoria, a state government body that oversees waste and recycling systems, has said councils must agree contracts with companies recommended by the Tender Evaluation Panel as part of the Resource Recovery Collective Hume collaborative tender.
“Based on the agreed process, RV does not endorse a decision by council to award a contract to a tenderer that is not supported by the Tender Evaluation Report,” the summary said.
“RV encourages council to carefully consider the risks of their decision.”