My thanks to Councillor Andrew Harper for (albiet inadvertently) pointing me in the direction of the latest Barnet Council Scandal. You can read the whole sorry story here :-
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=10084
It details (albiet in a nice sugary way) the fact that Barnet Council has lost control of the way it spends your money. Now maybe you don't think that matters, but I do. This is the reason why Childrens Centres are being chopped, Sheltered Housing wardens sacked and 800 Council workers threatened with redundancy.
Turn to the conclusions on page 15 and you will find this :-
This couldn't be more clear and the conclusion couldn't be more stark. Barnet Council are not spending our money wisely. The computer systems they use are not set up properly. This blog recently exposed how during the reign of Mike Freer, a SAP system was implemented. Mike Freer trumpeted in 2006 that this would "modernise procurement" and save Barnet Council millions of pounds. The system is outsourced (what Barnet want to do to everything else they run). This report says it doesn't work properly. Mike Freer said the system would cost £6 million. Some estimates say it has cost £15 million.
This is a scandal. Council workers are facing the sack, children are being cut loose. Vulnerable adults are losing their wardens. Today one of my friends in the Barnet Alliance for Public services asked me what I have been doing to save those affected by the cuts. I'll tell you what? I've been reading reports like this. I just hope that all of our useless, ineffective Council Leaders such as Lynne Hillan and Andrew Harper have been reading them as well. I just hope that they understand what the reports are saying. If they don't they should be sacked and be replaced by people who do. They cannot keep sweeping these disasters under the table. Just what does CEO Nick Walkley do for his money (£200,000 PA + perks) ? He certainly doesn't make sure our money is spent wisely. His own council report says so
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=10084
It details (albiet in a nice sugary way) the fact that Barnet Council has lost control of the way it spends your money. Now maybe you don't think that matters, but I do. This is the reason why Childrens Centres are being chopped, Sheltered Housing wardens sacked and 800 Council workers threatened with redundancy.
Turn to the conclusions on page 15 and you will find this :-
This couldn't be more clear and the conclusion couldn't be more stark. Barnet Council are not spending our money wisely. The computer systems they use are not set up properly. This blog recently exposed how during the reign of Mike Freer, a SAP system was implemented. Mike Freer trumpeted in 2006 that this would "modernise procurement" and save Barnet Council millions of pounds. The system is outsourced (what Barnet want to do to everything else they run). This report says it doesn't work properly. Mike Freer said the system would cost £6 million. Some estimates say it has cost £15 million.
This is a scandal. Council workers are facing the sack, children are being cut loose. Vulnerable adults are losing their wardens. Today one of my friends in the Barnet Alliance for Public services asked me what I have been doing to save those affected by the cuts. I'll tell you what? I've been reading reports like this. I just hope that all of our useless, ineffective Council Leaders such as Lynne Hillan and Andrew Harper have been reading them as well. I just hope that they understand what the reports are saying. If they don't they should be sacked and be replaced by people who do. They cannot keep sweeping these disasters under the table. Just what does CEO Nick Walkley do for his money (£200,000 PA + perks) ? He certainly doesn't make sure our money is spent wisely. His own council report says so
Rog, I suspect there is a much more subtle agenda going on here. The Tribal Consulting report which makes this conclusion was compiled in early 2010 - a year ago. However, the council have spent a lot of money in the last year trying to improve the situation, not least the £2 million since April paid to Logica to try and sort out the SAP system and £650 a day to Mr Chris Malyon who has been given responsibility for sorting out procurement. What this report seeks to do is justify is why procurement should be outsourced to a private company but that won't be for at least 18 months as it will take at least that long to negotiate a contract. I would suggest that maybe Cllr Harper drew your attention to this report on purpose so that everyone will shout "disgrace" and then roll over when the procurement department is outsourced along with a number of other departments including Customer Services, Estates, Finance, Human Resources, Information Systems,Revenues and Benefits.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right to question what the heck our highly paid officers have been doing over the years and why there are so many criticism of past performance (See the CRC report Options Appraisal paras F1.5, F2.5, F3.5, F4.5, F5.5, F6.5 and F7.5). You might also ask what councillors have been doing to allow this to happen. However we, the tax payers of Barnet, are currently funding a major overhaul of the service with the costs of consultants, interim managers and staff redundancies. Yet having gone through all that hard work and expense to improve these services they will then be handed over to a private company who will be delighted to run the services for a handsome profit.
Rog
ReplyDeleteThe staff here have made many, many suggestions as to how procurement can be made simpler, easier and cheaper in order to source equipment, etc. Simple things such as buying big stocks of stationery, pens, pencils etc, etc when big retailers such as Tesco or Sainsbury's (other retailers are of course available..) have them on sale. Even the saving on small items like this would be huge.
As for IT procurement, don't get me started... The Tablets provided are hideously underpowered, the security software is bloated and when running, eats up the procesing power of individual machines, effectively paralysing them and preventing staff from doing their work. This software is also very expensive and there are far cheaper and more effective alternatives out there. Again an option proposed by staff.
Another procurement issue we discovered recently: the new furniture, lockers, chairs etc are the cheapest of the cheap and are at the lowest end of the suppliers products. I know compromises must be made but the desks we had were perfectly adequate and could easily have been reused somewhere.
As for our glorious leader, Mr Walkley; the man listens to no-one and thinks the answer to every problem is to outsource it. Everyone is tired of telling him that as a blanket policy this simply does not work.
Not to worry, after privatising it all, in another 6 years everything will then be brought back in house and so the merry-go-round will continue....
as if to confirm money not being spent wisely, just had a phone call from SMR Research, asking if i would be willing to answer questions about Barnet Council Services as they have been engaged by Barnet Council to do a survey of Barnet Residents opinions!!!! And more proof if it were needed that they are not listening, they already have a good idea what opinions Barnet Residents hold on the subject of our Council and the Services. Wonder how much this survey is costing???
ReplyDeleteStrangely my word verification today is Innis, which in Gaelic means Island, as in "no man is an island".
....And ain't that that how Local Government has been working for years! Nobody listens
ReplyDelete