Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Council Overspend
Nobody to suffer?
BUDGET cuts aimed at recovering a multi-million pound deficit in council cash could affect every department, councillors have been warned. read more - here
Coun Ed Malcolm, who chaired the committee meeting, said the council will do everything in its power to make sure people do not suffer. Unfortunately, having read the report in the Gazette, it is patently clear that someone ought to have suffered, and that "someone" includes all those Council officers who allowed the social care and health budget to overspend by GBP 11 millions! Just where in the Council's stewardship of our money does the word accountability fit in? It seems that those in charge of both the service department and the finance department will not be deemed accountable for a clear breach of their responsibilities and failure to adhere to guidelines in complying with budgeted spending plans.
By accepting a measure of collective responsibility, the underperformance of certain individuals is effectively masked, whilst additional pressure will be created in ensuring that the next set of spending plans will be strictly controlled and adhered to. What worries me is the fact that these controls will need to applied and maintained by the same people who failed to exercise sufficent prudence in the last financial year!
What role do our Councillors have in this matter? This is a question that I have posed on a number of issues over the past twelve months, where it seems, to me at least, that our elected representatives are failing in their duties to examine, question, challenge, and inspect the recommendations of officers, and be ready to assert the will of the people as directed at local elections. In other words, the policies that were offered to and accepted by the electorate need to applied in decisions at Committee and full Council level. It is the responsibility of elected Councillors to seek decisions which match the aspirations of their party's policies and the community as a whole. It is the responsibility of appointed Officers to offer viable working practises which allow the policies of the elected representatives to be administered and to seek guidance from the leaders of the political parties on policies to be applied, as servants of the Council it is not the responsibility of Officers to create, devise, plan, or alter policies in any manner which has not had the approval of the electorate.
Perhaps this is why Cllr. Malcolm is welcoming further traning for our elected representatives, it seems (as I know only too well) that certain of them are uncomfortable with modern information and computer technology, and others find it difficult reading and understanding committee reports! Perhaps there is a strong case for taking this back to the political parties and urging them to find a more informed and educated type of candidate before offering them to the electorate, after all quality tends to be held in higher esteem than quantity!
For the sake of all of us, it would be nice if the ruling political party could take a very tough stance on financial and budgetry matters, we as council tax payers are very hard pushed already, and with the planned revaluation of properties not too distant, would appreciate moves on policy that would see a zero increase in the Community Charge for next year. It must be rememberd that only about 20% of us are making a contributuion to the Council's spending through this charge, the rest coming from central government, so some prudence of the type that would make Gordon Brown proud would be most welcome.
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