Every year, all 139 local councils in Western Australia face the same test. The Office of the Auditor General reviews each one, ensuring that the council is running its technology, data, and information systems as intended. The results are made public, and the expectations are clear.
In a recent update, the Auditor General named a group of small councils that have not improved since their last review. They have gone backwards. Plans that were half in place two years ago have lapsed. Issues that were flagged then are still open today.
For these councils, if the pattern continues, the council can be publicly named as failing, and in serious cases, the state government can step in and appoint someone to run the council until things are fixed.
For everyone else, it is a warning worth listening to.
What the auditor is actually checking
Most of what the auditor wants to see comes down to five practical questions.
- Does the council have an up-to-date technology plan for the next four years, and does that plan align with everything else the council is trying to achieve?
- Has the council had its cybersecurity properly looked at, and does it know what to fix and in what order?
- Is the IT function set up properly, whether it’s run in-house or by an outside provider?
- Does the council understand the information it holds about residents, and can it manage that information responsibly?
- Does the council have a plan to keep operating if its systems go down, and has it tested that plan?
The good news is that the auditor is not expecting perfection. What they want to see is genuine progress. A council that has commissioned an honest assessment and is working through a clear plan is treated very differently from a council that has done nothing.
Why councils fall behind
The councils going backwards are rarely the ones that don’t care. Most of them want to fix these things. The problem is capacity. Budgets are tight, and IT teams are small or outsourced. Half of all elected members can turn over every two years, which means new councillors inherit plans they had no say in shaping. Guidance and training are available, but writing the policy, conducting the assessment, and building the plan are very different matters.
That space between knowing what’s required and having the time and skills to deliver it is where most of the trouble happens.
How Tango helps
A tango takes two. The council brings its knowledge of its community, its people, and its priorities. Tango brings the technical expertise and the structure to turn those priorities into the documents, plans, and evidence the auditor expects to see.
We build the four-year technology plan, or roadmap as it’s commonly called, that meets the state’s guidelines. We assess the council’s stance on cybersecurity and lay out what to fix and in what order. We review how the IT function is run, look at how data is managed, and help build and test a recovery plan for when things go wrong.
If your next audit is on the horizon, the time to start is now.
Talk to Tango about preparing for your next review.
