If you want to be the first in your block to read about the next big scandal to hit Barnet Council, click on this link to the Barnet Council website and download report 12 :-
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/meetings/meetingdetail.asp?meetingid=6837
I will be analysing some of the information in here (and seeing what lessons we can apply from the Metpro debacle) over the next few days/weeks. In the meantime, here are a few choice exerts for your enjoyment. There are loads of items which have been flagged up for risks. These are just a few porky prime cuts. First lets see what has happened to the budget (remember this is from Barnet's own document) :-
See the note for the "Rapid Improvement project" - They spent £18,500 without having a budget.
Note "DRS" - Legal costs in dispute - slipped to 2011/12 - More costs stacking up?
Parking "Costs absorbed elsewhere"
So what conclusions can we draw. It is out of control, with money spent on projects with no allocated budget. There are legal issues and they are cooking the books, by "absorbing costs elsewhere". This is rather worrying, wouldn't you say.
Ok, now lets have a look at how the report says this is affecting the staff who have to keep the Council running?
CP0012 - "Uncertainty may cause employees to look outside organisation for what are perceived as more secure roles" How will they mitigate this? "Aim to bring contractor in to speak to staff as soon as possible after contract award". What planet do they live on?
As for CP0011 - what can I say. Do the council not realise this is people's livelihoods. What would you think if your boss abolished the "workforce code of practise" - Would you be reassured by a bit of management consultation? The report is full of statements like this - and yes people are being paid £1000 + a day to write this crap.
Lastly on our tour of the report highlights, we have this :-
This is perhaps the most alarming part for me. There is £6 million worth of spending for the financial year 2011/12 (ie now) and they haven't agreed the budget for it yet? Can anyone doubt that the project is out of control.
The likes of Councillor Daniel Thomas and Councillor Robert Rams keep saying that OneBarnet is the answer to all the ills of Barnet Council. Don't they read the reports or are they just too thick to understand them.
The Barnet Tories have a new boss, in Councillor Richard Cornelius. I sincerely hope he reads this report and asks the questions which seemingly leap out from every page. Surely the time has come to call a halt to this extravagant, uncontrolled waste. There are plenty of sensible, cheap measures which would get spending under control (see Metpro report). OneBarnet in it's many guises has rolled on for years and cost millions. It is a monster that is out of control. It may well be that there are parts that are salvagable, but just as the Metpro audit discovered a can of worms, surely the time has come to audit OneBarnet in a similar way and stop the rot.
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/meetings/meetingdetail.asp?meetingid=6837
I will be analysing some of the information in here (and seeing what lessons we can apply from the Metpro debacle) over the next few days/weeks. In the meantime, here are a few choice exerts for your enjoyment. There are loads of items which have been flagged up for risks. These are just a few porky prime cuts. First lets see what has happened to the budget (remember this is from Barnet's own document) :-
Note "DRS" - Legal costs in dispute - slipped to 2011/12 - More costs stacking up?
Parking "Costs absorbed elsewhere"
So what conclusions can we draw. It is out of control, with money spent on projects with no allocated budget. There are legal issues and they are cooking the books, by "absorbing costs elsewhere". This is rather worrying, wouldn't you say.
Ok, now lets have a look at how the report says this is affecting the staff who have to keep the Council running?
CP0012 - "Uncertainty may cause employees to look outside organisation for what are perceived as more secure roles" How will they mitigate this? "Aim to bring contractor in to speak to staff as soon as possible after contract award". What planet do they live on?
As for CP0011 - what can I say. Do the council not realise this is people's livelihoods. What would you think if your boss abolished the "workforce code of practise" - Would you be reassured by a bit of management consultation? The report is full of statements like this - and yes people are being paid £1000 + a day to write this crap.
Lastly on our tour of the report highlights, we have this :-
This is perhaps the most alarming part for me. There is £6 million worth of spending for the financial year 2011/12 (ie now) and they haven't agreed the budget for it yet? Can anyone doubt that the project is out of control.
The likes of Councillor Daniel Thomas and Councillor Robert Rams keep saying that OneBarnet is the answer to all the ills of Barnet Council. Don't they read the reports or are they just too thick to understand them.
The Barnet Tories have a new boss, in Councillor Richard Cornelius. I sincerely hope he reads this report and asks the questions which seemingly leap out from every page. Surely the time has come to call a halt to this extravagant, uncontrolled waste. There are plenty of sensible, cheap measures which would get spending under control (see Metpro report). OneBarnet in it's many guises has rolled on for years and cost millions. It is a monster that is out of control. It may well be that there are parts that are salvagable, but just as the Metpro audit discovered a can of worms, surely the time has come to audit OneBarnet in a similar way and stop the rot.
5 comments:
£85,000 spent on a prototyping project ?!
a) what does that mean ?
b) have we seen the benefit ?
c) we don't need prototypes, we need good old fashioned boring services and no spin
£744,000 on SAP optimisation
SAP is a high class hooker; she's shown the Officers a bit of leg and before you know it they have been luvved up comprehensively (£8m) and she does have a lot of tricks to show them, which they don't quite understand, as they continue to worship at her feet and the bill goes up over the years ( £21m ) all paid for out of ill-gotten gains ( Council Tax ) and in one year alone they have spent £744,300 on optimisation - sounds like you haven't got out of the missionary position yet, and £61,000 of this money was spent on a SAP consultant showing you what to do !
Joking aside, my bank balance is sapped ( no Mrs A not by visiting dens of iniquity but by being raided year on year by the Council to pay for their debauchery - what at Sandbanks you say - yes, possibly ).
I think this is the project they are on about. It was a project to work with 'problem' families in Barnet through mentoring them (unpaid, volunteer mentors, I understand - yes, the people doing the hard work don't get any money from it, the consultants do).
The council had worked out that just a few families in Barnet were costing most of the money. The project is detailed elsewhere. Here's how some consultancy firm NESTA (I don't know what their cut was) described the prototyping project:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ISQv-JqobKwJ:www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/public_services_lab/prototype_barnet+barnet+prototyping&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk
calm down Mr Mustard, you naughty blogger, bit lively for a Monday morning, aren't you?
As for the prototyping project: yes - look: this is what Nesta says:
"Barnet’s past attempts to pilot services haven’t consistently demonstrated returns on investment. (can you believe it?) ... The Council hope that prototyping might help them improve their approach, enabling them to:
secure early buy-in from all the key stakeholders needed for success
generate and test a range of service options
understand the systemic change needed to allow improved outcomes to be scalable
and ultimately to unlock cashable savings."
In other words, yet more extravagant spin, justifying yet more pointless expenditure, and supporting the careers of senior officers who can't run the proverbial event in a brewery but manage to survive while everyone else faces redundancy and cutbacks.
Nesta are a think tank - National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. I think they probably provided some funding for this. They lean toward the science & technology ideas in my experience.
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