How the Gympie council dodged a major COVID bullet
Subscriber only
THE COVID financial bullet has missed Gympie Regional Council, with the official economic damage from the pandemic far less than other councils’.
The council lost $161,000 due to the pandemic, with the largest slice ($128,000) taken from its revenue.
It was a significantly lower hit than felt by the Sunshine Coast, which lost $8 million due to COVID, and Toowoomba Regional Council, where the economic hit was $9.1 million.
The biggest chunk of this, $8.7 million, was lost through rates concessions at Toowoomba.
In Gympie, $3000 of the council’s revenue was forgone through pandemic, sick and carers leave and standing down employees, and the remaining $30,000 loss was recorded for materials and services.
MORE GYMPIE NEWS
- Hartwig report buries some absurd council myths
- Groundwater Rd land went from high density to nature reserve
However acting chief financial officer David Lewis said the impact was greater than $161,000.
“Everything disclosed … is what we can quantify through our accounting systems,” acting chief financial officer David Lewis said.
“Obviously the value is higher than that but we can’t physically determine what that value is (in) things like lost productivity.
“They’re the figures we can determine through our accounting systems; we know it’s higher but we don’t have the accuracy.”
