Council’s fines blunder

Cardinia Shire Council ratepayers have incorrectly been issued summons notices. 138931_36

By Bonny Burrows

Cardinia Shire Council is once again in hot water with residents after a blunder saw ratepayers incorrectly slogged with fines for supposed missed payments.
The Gazette understands a number of ratepayers have received a summons notice from debt collectors despite paying for or having rate payment plans in place, risking a default on their credit report.
It follows an incident on 20 February, where the credit card information of about 300 residents was emailed out with rate payment receipts, due to a “software error” by a third party internet payment provider which did not encrypt card numbers as required by security standards.
It is understood council still uses the same third party provider, Bill Buddy, despite the previous glitch and the system may be responsible for the latest error.
A recent social media post on the issue attracted 36 comments, many of which slammed council for its handling of financial matters.
“The council has a lot to answer for if this is how they’re spending ratepayers’ money, with collector’s fees on something that isn’t overdue,” one resident commented.
Another commenter called for council to ‘lift its game’, and another said they had received three letters, each time told they were system generated because it wasn’t “recognising the Flexipay set up”.
“We hope they’ve fixed it this time, so incompetent,” the comment read.
Council was unavailable for comment by the Gazette’s deadline; however it has confirmed the latest error to affected residents.
It is understood council and the debt collection agency have sorted the error out with impacted customers who have come forward.