Ipswich's council-owned companies to be wound-up in post-Pisasale era

Three of the four Ipswich City Council-run companies at the centre of recent misconduct allegations will be wound-up next week, the city's new mayor said on Wednesday night.

In addition, a full forensic audit of all four council-owned companies will go ahead, Andrew Antoniolli told Fairfax Media, referring to Ipswich City Properties, Ipswich City Enterprises, Ipswich City Development and Ipswich Motorsport Precinct Pty Ltd.

It will be the first major departure from the council's Paul Pisasale era and be part of a 19-point plan to go to next Tuesday’s full council meeting for approval.

On Wednesday, the council announced recommendations for a new code of conduct for all councillors, tighter checks on conflicts of interest and “tighter policies around procurement, allowances and planning”.

Cr Antoniolli said further recommendations to next week's council meeting would include a forensic audit of all four companies.

Mr Pisasale, deputy mayor Paul Tully and Cr Antoniolli, along with the council’s chief executive officer Jim Lindsay, all served as directors of the council-owned companies.

Mr Pisasale stood down from the companies on June 20 after he resigned as Ipswich mayor in June.

“Next week there will be some additional recommendations which speak about winding up three of the companies, as well as conducting a forensic audit of their accounts,” Cr Antoniolli said.

The four companies are separate legal entities to Ipswich City Council.

Cr Antoniolli said there would be a forensic audit of Ipswich City Properties, which was managing the redevelopment of the Ipswich Mall, Ipswich City Enterprises, Ipswich City Development and Ipswich Motorsport Precinct Pty Ltd.

“After that, we will be winding up Ipswich City Enterprises, Ipswich City Development and Ipswich Motorsport Precinct,” he said.

The future of Ipswich Motorsport Precinct and its looming takeover of Ipswich racetracks bubbled up during the Ipswich council election.

Ipswich City Properties will not be wound up because it has existing contracts linked to the recently-commenced Ipswich Mall redevelopment, which is owned by Ipswich City Council.

Cr Antoniolli said he had the support of “most of the councillors” at the city management committee meeting and expected it would pass at next week’s full council meeting.

“It was carried at committee and I expect it will be carried at council next week,” he said.

Cr Antoniolli said council CEO Mr Lindsay commissioned the independent review, which has ordered the new code of conduct and tighter checks on conflicts of interest and the review of the companies.

“He is all on board with the recommendations,” Cr Antoniolli said.

“He commissioned the review; he wrote the report."

Meanwhile, Cr Antoniolli said he did not have enough information to comment about multi-million council contracts awarded to either Landfill Logistics or Colmine Consulting.

The companies' names arose in a Crime and Corruption Commission charge on Wednesday against the council’s works, parks and recreation chief operating officer, Craig Maudsley.

Mr Maudsley, who has not entered a plea to the charge, is accused of acting to dishonestly gain a benefit for Wayne Francis Innes, who runs a landfill company called Landfill Logistics.

Cr Antoniolli said he was disappointed to learn of the CCC charge against Mr Maudsley.

“Like everybody, yes (I was disappointed," he said.

"However, as we’ve all said, everybody deserves their presumption of innocence and until the matter is settled I won’t be making any further comment.”

The other council changes include a higher degree of accountability between council officers and elected representatives and more accessible registers of interest for councillors.

The complex format of the council’s existing register of interest was criticised during the election.