Confidentiality ahead of vote to spend $5.7m on Hastings water treatment plants
A national operator has been awarded a contract worth more than $5 million by a Hastings District Council subcommittee for upgrades to the water treatment plants in several small communities.
The revised tender from Filtec Ltd for Contract No. CON2019002 – Small Community Water Treatment Plant Upgrades of $5,761,009.62 excluding GST was approved at an extraordinary meeting of the Civic and Administration Subcommittee, held on Monday.
But the report of the Director: Major Capital Projects Delivery was discussed behind closed doors after committee members voted for it to be public excluded.
A Hastings District Council spokesman said the extraordinary meeting was called because the “potentially successful tender asked for some urgency to enable it to start preparing for the work” ahead of their scheduled February 13 meeting.
The move into the public excluded session relied on sections 48(1)(a)(i) and 7(2)(i) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.
“In particular, the report contained a significant amount of detail about the recommended tenderer and non-recommended tenders,” the spokesman said.
“The public disclosure of which may inhibit the willingness of tenderers to take part in further tenders and hence undermine the Council’s ability to undertake future negotiation in a way that delivers of the best value for ratepayers.”
The subcommittee’s chair and Hastings-Havelock North ward councillor Malcolm Dixon said it “had to be public excluded” because of confidential information about tenders and their prices that “only those who were making the decision could know”.
“Rest assured, I would only go into public excluded if we absolutely had to,” Dixon said.
Deputy Mayor Tania Kerr (as acting Mayor in the Mayor’s absence), and members Damon Harvey, Wendy Schollum, Geraldine Travers, Kevin Watkins, along with council officer Jagwinder Pannu were present. Councillors Simon Nixon, Eileen Lawson and Henare O’Keefe were absent.
The resolution to move the item into public excluded was passed without any dissenting votes, a council spokesman said. “But a division (a record of individual votes) was not called so we are unable to confirm if any member chose not to vote,” he added.
Dixon said the upgrades were “absolutely essential”. He said Filtec will start work “as soon as they possibly can”. Hence why the meeting which “should have” been held prior to Christmas but couldn’t, was “urgent”.
“The sooner we can get onto it, the better for all of them, to provide them with a safe water supply.”
Six communities; Esk/Whirinaki, Clive, Whakatu, Waipatiki, Waimarama, and Haumoana / Te Awanga will benefit from the work.
Dixon says it will not only allow them to filtrate the water, and treat the water in a proper manner, but also will provide the correct water pressure.
Following the meeting, the resolutions agreed upon have been made public. The subcommittee also granted the delegated authority on behalf of the Council, to the Director: Major Capital Projects to award cumulative contract variations to the contract up to the value of the contingency sum of $500,000 plus GST.
