{"id":2663,"date":"2024-01-15T23:55:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=2663"},"modified":"2024-01-15T23:55:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:55:31","slug":"mayor-of-council-in-queensland-places-own-company-on-contractor-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=2663","title":{"rendered":"Mayor of Council in Queensland places own company on contractor list"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The CEO of a Cape York council has rigorously defended his council\u2019s procurement policy after the mayor\u2019s personal company was awarded contracts worth $3m within four years. Lockhart River Mayor Wayne Butcher is the director of Wayne Butcher Business Management, previously trading as Wayne Butcher Enterprises, which earnt $285,739 in FY 2023-24, almost $1.5m in FY 2022-23, $858,360 in FY 2021-22 and $449,312 in FY 2020-21, according to Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses owned by Mr Butcher and at least two other councillors have also been included on the council\u2019s preferred supplier panel after recommendations by an external consultant. The Cairns Post is not suggesting Mr Butcher inappropriately used his influence at the council or any unlawful conduct to secure contracts for his businesses. Council\u2019s CEO David Clarke said the council\u2019s procurement policy had been heavily scrutinised over six years and emerged without blemish. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked closely with both the (Office of the Independent Assessor) and the (Crime and Corruption Commission) to ensure probity and transparency,\u201d Mr Clarke said. \u201cOur process is fully compliant with state government procurement policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Dean \u2013 a traditional owner and chairman of Mangkuma, the local Land Trust \u2013 said the council\u2019s procurement process had locked out some locals looking to start a business and enter the council\u2019s preferred supplier list. \u201cOur process is merit based. Some (complainants) don\u2019t have machines or business history. \u201cWe\u2019ve asked them for their (quality assurance) systems, their insurance profile, basic things required when running a business. \u201cAt the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to turn up with machines and workers ready to go, and be prepared to stick to a works program. \u201cWe have helped people submit applications to the preferred supplier panel. \u201cOur business development officer will help them create a business plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a whole range of economic support measures in place that are unique to our council. \u201cWe\u2019ve put local guys through apprenticeships who have since contracted back to the council. \u201cWe deliberately leave gaps in the market up here so they can be filled by local contractors. \u201cIt\u2019s a good news story what we\u2019re doing with our economy.\u201d Mr Butcher said the procurement process had been above board. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten proper advice, we\u2019ve jumped through all the hoops,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve helped establish and add value to other businesses. When I started (my business) in 2012 there were no other local businesses here. Now we have 12. \u201cThe model we have here has grown the local economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The CEO of a Cape York council has rigorously defended his council\u2019s procurement policy after the mayor\u2019s personal company was awarded contracts worth $3m within […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":2664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,999],"tags":[472,998],"class_list":["post-2663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-australia-politics","tag-australian","tag-corruption"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2663\/revisions\/2669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}