I've run a business for 31 years. I'm pretty good at it, even if I say so myself. Every year I work out a development plan, set my business goals and set my priorities. I make sure my staff know these. As a result, Mill Hill Music Complex (my business) is one of London's most successful studios. I trust my staff with decisions as to what to spend on tea, coffee and guitar strings and other regular items which we sell in our shop.
If they want to buy a new piece of expensive equipment for the recording studio, the first thing I ask is "Ok, so this costs £5,000. Is this the best possible way we can spend £5,000 to bring more customers in". If they can make the case and show me that it will generate £30,000 worth of revenue in the next year, I will buy it. If they say "Oh, it''ll look great in the studio and bring in £500" they get told to go away. Small things like turning off lights and heaters saves huge amounts of cash. Every day, our dayshift check that this has been done by the night staff and those that don't are spoken to.
Barnet Council have a fancy new toy on their website. It's a Barnet Budget simulator. You can design your own budget for Barnet Council. In one single web page, Barnet have demonstrated everything which is wrong with the way that our Tory Council think. You see, if I want to save money in my business, I walk around and look for things which are wasteful. I look for people not doing their jobs as I expect. I look for easy savings. I pay attention to detail.
How many Council offices have the lights left on at night. How many unattended offices have the heating on all night, when they could switch it off from say 9pm to 5am. How many unused telephone lines are they paying a standing charge on? How many people can't do their job properly because the council hasn't trained them, so are getting paid to deliver poor service. These are the type of things which save money and improve service. My dearly departed mother felt the sharp end of Barnet Councils budget cuts in April 2007 when they outsourced the meals on wheels service to Sodexho. Her lunch arrived 5 hours late, because no one from the council realised that it was impossible for a delivery driver to deliver a meal every 3 minutes. Some old dears take that long to open the door.
If the Tory councillors want to save money, turn up unannounced at a few council offices and depots. Go out of hours and see if the lights are on, walk around and see what people are doing. Budget cuts come from attention to detail, so don't take the officers word when they say they've done a good job. Challenge them to prove it beyond doubt. Get your head into the detail.
Mike Freer stated that the reason he lost £27.4 Million in Iceland was because he "trusted well paid officials to tell the truth" He felt that it was not unreasonable to expect honest answers to his questions. Well conmen around the world have a term for people like Mike Freer - "Suckers". It's not enough to have blind faith in your staff. You have to check their work. You are the boss, so they should expect it. If they are doing a good job, they won't mind.
Contrary to popular belief, I would much rather Mike Freer had done a good job when he took over in 2006. If he had, then we'd have lower taxes and wouldn't be facing huge hikes due to Icelandic losses.
According to the Barnet Budget simulator, the Total Council budget is £93.75 million. The Tories lost £27.4 million in Iceland, due to Mike Freer not checking the work of his Officers, despite getting a £3,000 responsibility allowance. Council officers were sacked. They lost £11 million on Aerodrome Road, due to poor management of contractors procured by then Deputy Leader and Candidate for Parliament in Hendon, Matthew Offord. That's over £38 million, or in other words, well over a third of the Councils entire annual budget, lost by sloppy and shoddy work and lazy cabinet members not properly scrutinising the facts and figures. I note with interest that the simualtor has no button for "losses due to financial mismanagement" or "losses due to inept procurement". Given that is how they spent over £1 in every £3 you gave them, you'd think they'd be the biggest buttons of the lot.
The current favourite to take over from Mike Freer is Lynne Hillan. Shes mired in a scandal concerning the failure of a company she ran, which crashed with debts of £110,000, much of it to the taxpayer. Needless to say she's had many happy hours playing with this stupid toy on the website.
I have one question for Barnet Council. How much has it cost them to put the budget simulator on their website. Is that really the best use for that money? I'm sure that many voluntary groups, could have delivered real benefit to people in need had they been given that cash. What benefit has this toy given anyone.
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