Our concerns about Greater Shepparton City Council’s proposed $75 million waste contracts multiplied this week, amid mounting evidence of an astonishing lack of due diligence and an appalling lack of probity around what is a huge, long-term commitment for council — and for ratepayers.
In apparent disregard of council’s obligations under the Local Government Act to give priority to achieving the best outcome for the municipal community, including future generations, officers recommended the bulk of the contract go to national company Cleanaway ahead of locally owned and operated Foott Waste, which has offered to build a recovery and recycling centre employing at least 20 people.
The stated aims of council’s lengthy regional procurement process included “encouraging regional investment in people, sustainable infrastructure and innovative services, including the building of local service provider capability, resilience and supplier diversity; and to increase resource recovery while advancing a circular economy.” This seems to be mere lip service.
On the innovation front, Foott Waste had also undertaken to introduce electric trucks with the assistance of Volvo, which indicated it would build a local servicing centre.
Meanwhile, at the municipality of Hobsons Bay, 40,000 households can’t get their garbage collected on time — or at all — because Cleanaway can’t find enough drivers. Its continuing industrial issues may well have something to do with that; unions have been critical of Cleanaway’s treatment of its workers for years.
Other black marks over Cleanaway include massive fines totalling $600,000, imposed by the NSW Land and Environment Court last year, for polluting waterways.
None of this seemed to bother those running the tendering process, under whose watch the outcome of this massive tender was leaked a month ago: Foott Waste heard it would “win” Strathbogie and “lose” Shepparton. That Foott Waste won the Strathbogie tender against Cleanaway suggests it is highly competitive on price — while arguably superior on corporate behaviour, not to mention its generous community contribution over many years.
The nature and circumstances of the leaks raise serious questions about the professionalism and motives of those involved in managing or assessing the tenders. When added to the apparent lack of attention to the performance and capability of the tenderers, it seems obvious that council must investigate.
We cannot be certain of how much the council infrastructure officers had to do with the process — but they are listed on council agenda as responsible. Council officers were also responsible for the debacle of the Fryers/Welsford intersection works, commenced during October’s historic floods when there was just one crossing of the river — for many kilometres in either direction.
Again, they awarded the tender to a contractor that closed the entire road, against local tenderers who would have kept one lane open, mitigating the enormous inconvenience this dangerous and stupid decision caused our community during an exceptionally stressful period — suggesting, in our view, a breathtaking level of tone-deafness, if not incompetence.
And that followed the unedifying performance of council officers six months earlier in dismissing — on flimsy grounds — alternatives to the proposed sale of air space next to the ACE College in Maude St, in the face of significant community disquiet. Given this series of missteps, readers will hardly be surprised to learn that the News has low confidence in both the capability of sections of council staff and their level of commitment to this community. Councillors must take control.