Tuesday, August 09, 2005
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News - SouthTyneside Today: Overspend blame in secret report
The news that another "scrutiny committee" has been formed to investigate yet another major act of mismanagement by Council Officers should come as no surprise, it now seems to be a standard response by elected members when having to "fight a fire". However, these additional committees do not come free of charge as members continue to accrue further allowances for additional attendance. In any other business, managers would have been held acutely responsible long before now and departmental heads would have been changed in favour of personnel more likely to have the drive and determination to deliver within budget! The Board of Directors (in this case, our Councillors, will have demanded nothing less.)
I'm afraid that on a few occasions it has been apparent that elected members have failed to administer their responsibilities in controlling the performance of officers. It needs to be remembered that officers are there to administer the policies and decisions taken by the elected members, as well as to make recommendations and give timely advice to members.
Elected members have duties and responsibilities (for which they are held accountable by the electors) to manage all of the affairs of the Council, on our behalf, and I emphasise that these accountabilities extend to both the opposition and the ruling group. They all have a duty to investigate, question, and challenge officers in all aspects of policy administration. To draw the comparison with a PLC, we, as the shareholders, have very right to elect a new Board of Directors if we feel our money is being poorly managed.
I hope that as this financial fiasco unravels itself, a new hardline approach to fiscal matters is formulated for the next financial year; if Gordon Brown can be hailed as New Labour's "Iron Chancellor", wouldn't it be a good thing if South Tyneside Council adopted similar strict budgetry controls and ensured that we could expect a zero increase in the Community Charge next year? If, as has been stated over the past few weeks, there is a decent level of "reserve" funding, there is a good case for aiming at a zero increase with no loss of services.
Who amongst them is going to be brave enough to suggest such a vote winning platform?
_________________________________________________________________
The news that another "scrutiny committee" has been formed to investigate yet another major act of mismanagement by Council Officers should come as no surprise, it now seems to be a standard response by elected members when having to "fight a fire". However, these additional committees do not come free of charge as members continue to accrue further allowances for additional attendance. In any other business, managers would have been held acutely responsible long before now and departmental heads would have been changed in favour of personnel more likely to have the drive and determination to deliver within budget! The Board of Directors (in this case, our Councillors, will have demanded nothing less.)
I'm afraid that on a few occasions it has been apparent that elected members have failed to administer their responsibilities in controlling the performance of officers. It needs to be remembered that officers are there to administer the policies and decisions taken by the elected members, as well as to make recommendations and give timely advice to members.
Elected members have duties and responsibilities (for which they are held accountable by the electors) to manage all of the affairs of the Council, on our behalf, and I emphasise that these accountabilities extend to both the opposition and the ruling group. They all have a duty to investigate, question, and challenge officers in all aspects of policy administration. To draw the comparison with a PLC, we, as the shareholders, have very right to elect a new Board of Directors if we feel our money is being poorly managed.
I hope that as this financial fiasco unravels itself, a new hardline approach to fiscal matters is formulated for the next financial year; if Gordon Brown can be hailed as New Labour's "Iron Chancellor", wouldn't it be a good thing if South Tyneside Council adopted similar strict budgetry controls and ensured that we could expect a zero increase in the Community Charge next year? If, as has been stated over the past few weeks, there is a decent level of "reserve" funding, there is a good case for aiming at a zero increase with no loss of services.
Who amongst them is going to be brave enough to suggest such a vote winning platform?
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