NONSENSICAL and unfair are two words Leeton Shire Council has used to describe a battle with the state government regarding Rural Fire Service assets.
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For the last two years council has taken a strong position relating to the treatment of RFS mobile assets known as the "red fleet".
Council does not recognise these assets in its annual financial statements, but this is something the state government is pushing to change.
This long-standing dispute over the accounting treatment of the "red fleet" has come to a head with the Auditor-General's 2021 Report on Local Government on June 22.
The report re-emphasises the state government determination that RFS assets are the "property" of councils and must be recorded in councils' financial statements with councils required to absorb all depreciation costs as a result.
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Councils do not have any say in the acquisition, deployment, or disposal of these assets.
At its most recent ordinary meeting, Leeton shire mayor Tony Reneker reiterated said council's position relating to the matter was not a slur on RFS volunteers.
"We fully support them, they do a wonderful job here and across the state," he said.
"This is purely about the accounting practices.
"Personally, I don't understand how something we don't own or don't control is on our books."
About 60 other councils and Local Government NSW are all part of a campaign to ensure the "red fleet" does not end up on the books of councils.
Council said it will not carry out RFS assets stocktakes on behalf of the NSW government and will not record these assets in its financial statements.
"There's a fundamental view that we don't control these assets and to have to depreciate them on our books seems fundamentally wrong, never mind unfair," council's general manager Jackie Kruger told the meeting.
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