by Sahar Foladi and Cam Lucadou-Wells
During an escalating election campaign, a pair of opposing Greater Dandenong councillors have been separately slammed for their work expense claims.
An anonymous Facebook account has targeted sitting independent councillor Bob Milkovic’s expense report from 2022-‘23.
Meanwhile, former councillor Maria Sampey has openly campaigned against Labor-member mayor Lana Formoso, who had defeated Sampey in a previous election. Among her issues was Formoso’s $8500-plus expenses claim in 2023-’24.
The freshly-created ‘TimB’ account posted on the Springvale Community Noticeboard Facebook group, emphasising the almost $4000 vehicle/mileage claim of the sitting Dandenong North ward councillor Bob Milkovic.
According to the posted report, his total expense claim for the financial year was more than $10,000, including airfares, accommodation and meals, training and conferences and taxi/train fares.
The post made on Thursday 10 October warning residents to be ‘vigilant when voting this election” accusing the incumbent councillor of “taking a vacation at ratepayers’ expense.”
Many took to comment on the post voicing their opinion.
Councillor Bob Milkovic who was unaware of the post when contacted by Star Journal said people are free to use social media however they like.
“I’m not even going to guess who it is and couldn’t care less.
“At the end of the day we as councillors, everything that we do is out there for public scrutiny. All are expenses travel whatever is all documented and available for everyone to see.
“I don’t get involved in these games where I claim something. I just run a campaign tell them (residents) what I want to do and that’s it, the residents decide.”
Incumbent councillor Sean O’Reilly says this was an attempt to “throw him (Milkovic) off.”
“They must know enough about council reports to have a printed copy of a councillor expense report.
“These are available on the website but the one in the photo seemed to have different format.
“Even though the election commissioner has asked candidates to lift their standards but I’m afraid it doesn’t appear to have happened.”
O’Reilly posted a comment saying expenses claims were checked by the council governance department.
The TimB account was only created on Thursday 9 October, a day before the post was made.
“That is further leading to someone’s got a definite intent to smear a councillor using a fake Facebook account,” O’Reilly said.
“You can never prove, it’s virtually impossible because anybody can register a fake account and there’s no identity verifications to prove who it was.”
O’Reilly says this election is no better than the last one as far as “spreading rumours and fake news.”
According to Facebook, the ‘TimB’ account was added as an additional profile to another account but with separate feeds.
The person behind the account went as far as to upload a printed photo of Milkovic’s Facebook post from 2022 in Wollongong NSW.
The photo portrays Milkovic with Rade Stefanovic, the Ambassador for Australia and New Zealand, at the DMC Cup 2022 according to the post.
Meanwhile, Sampey in a mail-out to Noble Park North Ward residents has criticised sitting mayor Formoso for topping the 2023-’24 travel expenses – the year after the Milkovic report.
“Whilst we are working hard paying our bills Lana was the councillor who has racked up the highest expenses in addition to her large $134,954 salary and her fully maintained council vehicle which we pick up the tab for.
“She has flown to Canberra multiple times this year and attended Gala Dinners and events that we all had to pay for.”
Citing the ward meanwhile “falling into disrepair”, Sampey urged voters to support “strong independent local candidates” Will Billings and Love Agravante.
Formoso’s $8500-plus expenses bill included training and conferences, attended functions, airfares, accommodation and meals.
She told Star Journal that her expenses were fueled by attending several events each day as mayor, as well as taking part in leadership and development training “which every councillor is entitled to do”.
However, Formoso – whose husband Daniel Formoso is standing against Milkovic in this month’s election – said Milkovic’s vehicle/mileage bill “didn’t fit the pub test”. Most councillors didn’t claim vehicle/mileage because it was “part of the role”.
In the past year, Formoso reimbursed the council for a trip to Canberra after an “administrative error”.
Crs Formoso and Milkovic flew to Canberra for a Statehood Day of Serbia reception at the Canberra Hyatt on 27 February.
As required by the council’s travel policy, the mayor approved Cr Milkovic’s travel and accommodation expenses – about $1400.
However the mayor’s costs did not receive prior approval from chief executive Jacqui Weatherill – which is also required under the council’s protocol.
Cr Formoso subsequently reimbursed the council for the entire trip’s cost.
