What goes wrong, and where it gets caught.
Every case here comes from a published finding of the Office of the Auditor General, the Corruption and Crime Commission or an authorised inquiry, or from a council's own reports. We do not name the councils. The pattern is the useful part, and the named version goes out on request.
Six patterns we keep seeing.
These are the six on the home page, set out in a bit more detail. Each one is mapped to the gate that would have caught it. That mapping is our assessment, not a finding of the cited reports.
Six patterns, and the gate that catches each one
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A shire borrowed $22.5 million to build a 328-room workers village. The nearby nickel mines went into care and maintenance, and the village sold for less than it cost to build.
Office of the Auditor General WA and the shire's own business planCaught at G1 Business Case
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A regional council paid $85.2 million to exit a twenty year waste processing agreement nine years early.
council meeting papers and annual reportCaught at G1 Business Case
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A roof replacement approved at $2.5 million was revised to $7.5 million. The pool below it was out of action for more than two years.
council agendaCaught at G1 Business Case
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Marine works were awarded to a contractor with no marine construction experience. The waterway was too shallow for boats for five years.
authorised inquiryCaught at G3 Procurement and Award
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Two years of accounts could not be audited after a finance system migration. Commissioners were appointed.
Office of the Auditor General WACaught at G4 Construction and Delivery
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$75.6 million of completed capital works was still recorded as work in progress, with assets available for use or in use and not being depreciated.
Office of the Auditor General WACaught at G5 Handover and Asset Registration
Classification of each case to a gate, and the view that the gate would have caught it, is Meridian Advisory's assessment, not a finding of the cited reports.
There are more than six.
The full library runs to fifteen documented Western Australian cases and it is still growing. We share it with councils, audit and risk committees and sector bodies rather than publishing it, because the point is to help your Council avoid the pattern, not to put another council on a website.