Warrnambool mayor Tony Herbert says he has called a special meeting to consider appointing an external auditor in response to concerns from his fellow councillors, despite him not backing the independent investigation last week.
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Councillors supported South West Coast MP Roma Britnell's push for a review after she said the only way for the community to regain trust in the council was for a thorough investigation into council's governance.
"I called the meeting in response to concerns expressed by fellow councillors who were responding to concerns and questions raised by the community," Cr Herbert said.
"I am supportive of an audit to review and assess the processes around corporate credit cards.
"Any investigation into credit card misuse would be conducted by a completely external referral authority which might be IBAC, the Victorian Ombudsman, the Local Government Inspectorate or Victoria Police."
He said it was a "complex matter" because there was regulations that prevented the council from disclosing whether it made a referral to an external authority.
"The constraints on council around the referral process have been made known to the media on several occasions in recent weeks," he said.
"Under consideration on Thursday night at the special meeting is a complementary measure: that council would consider engaging an external auditor/consultant to conduct a review of all its policies and procedures around credit card expenditure. This process would help ensure that proper practices for credit card use and expenditure are best practice, clear and prescriptive."
He said there was no indication yet on what an independent audit could cost.
"Unsure at this stage as it would depend on the scope, which is the subject of Thursday night's meeting," he said.
A spokesman for Ms Britnell said she met with Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek to personally discuss the issues after she called for an independent audit of governance procedures at the council in Parliament last week.
"At that meeting it was agreed the best course of action would be for the council to engage an independent expert," he said.
"The Minister then undertook to provide this advice to the council. Ms Britnell is pleased the mayor has taken this advice on board and called this special meeting in an effort to authorise the engagement of an independent expert.
"As Ms Britnell has said from the start, this is not about attributing blame, it is about making sure the community can have confidence in their council and she believes the only way to begin restoring confidence is for an independent investigation into governance procedures."
Cr Herbert said he was unaware of any conversation Ms Britnell had with the minister.
"It is disappointing that our local member has demonstrated an unwillingness to support council to achieve the best result and supplied no supportive evidence of any wrongdoing. They are unsubstantiated claims," he said.
The meeting is at 5.30pm at the council chamber. It is open to the public.