Every year, the Council goes through its Annual Report process to prepare financial reports for the public. During this process, we assess whether there is any funding that needs to be carried over to the following financial year. Carrying over funding means that budgeted funds that haven't been spent can be used in the next year. We might need to do this because projects are incomplete due to market forces, a project will take multiple years or a project won’t be completed before the end of the financial year.
The Council must decide to carry the funding forward before producing the final annual accounts to ensure it is accounted for correctly and does not cause a burden on ratepayers before the funding is utilized. Carrying over the funding creates a favorable variance to the budget for the year when the money isn't spent.
Sometimes we also need to carry over operational funding as well. For example, this year the Council decided to defer the Long Term Plan until 2025, which means that we will produce a 9-year plan in 2025. The Council had budgeted $104,000 for the audit of the Long Term Plan in the 2023/2024 financial year, and that amount has been carried over into 2024/2025 instead.