Mayoral candidate Craig Lord is vowing to dig into the operations of Auckland Transport on behalf of the city residents after more reckless spending is uncovered.

“Once again Auckland Transport has been caught playing games with our rates and it needs serious investigation” says Lord.

“If it was their own money coming out of their personal bank account you would hope they’d be sensible enough to question the spend - but clearly they’re inept when it comes to the public purse. A $32,000 bus stop on Great Barrier Island is evidence of this.”

Revealed in the media, Auckland Transport spokesman Blake Crayton-Brown said the new stop replaced a shelter in poor condition and said its installation was part of an Auckland Transport programme of road safety improvements.

Lord is questioning the ability of decision makers inside the Auckland transport head office.

“It’s genuinely mind boggling that they would do this. There is zero logic behind it, and shows that are nothing more than a bunch of rubber stamping out-of-their depth bureaucrats. It’s going to upset them when I walk in the door to ask questions, but the time for diplomacy is over. The people demand answers and change.”

Lord wants to bring Auckland Council back to its purpose of core services and spend his tenure as a Mayor finding where the problems are and coming up with solutions to solve them.

“It’s clearly dysfunctional and we can all see that from the outside. Sadly my contacts on the inside reiterate this and middle to upper management either can’t change or simply won’t. Well under my watch things will be different.”

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