So who is really to blame for the Barnet election omnishambles

Asleep at the wheel. Travers in a Council meeting

  So Andrew Travers has left Barnet Council due to the Omnishambles at the Mayoral elections. It was inevitable and I for one will not be sad to see the back of Mr Travers. Not because he was a nasty bloke, he was always polite to me and he never had the arrogant tone of his predecessor Nick Walkley. It is however necessary to establish the principle of where the buck stops and as CEO he had to take responsibility.

Travers tries to stay awake as Mrs Angry questions him

But the question has to be asked, who is really to blame. The CEO executes policy, the political leadership sets it. The truth is that the Tory Leadership of Richard Cornelius and Dan Thomas are the ones who have instructed Travers to indulge in a massive cost cutting and staff outsourcing process. The claim from the Tories is that the department of the Council which organises elections is still in house. This is a massive distortion. The council reliese on the IT services of Capita and the legal services of Harrow Council.

Travers and his boss, Richard Cornelius

In previous years all of these people would
sit together. It was a simple matter to walk up and check things. People were in the same building and meetings could easliy be pulled together. In the modern world, putting together an election is a complex issue, with multiple departments engaged. As they happen at irregular intervals, havings taff who have been around for a few years is a necessity. Sadly there has been huge cost cutting and such departments have lost dozens of key staff. The concept from the Tories is that you simply hire in temporary staff.

Travers with the MAyor of Barnet

Sadly this has been shown to be a flawed strategy. The expertise on how to run an election has been lost. Of course it is cheaper simply to hire in a few temps for a few weeks, but if you have no one around with experience at a senior level of running the show, accidents happen. In this case the accident was a spectacular failure that has put the Council on the front page of the papers and on the TV news.

What is needed is a proper, independent inquiry. An inquiry that doesn't just look at whether the problem was down to Mr T or Mrs X. The question has to be asked whether the way Richard Cornelius and Dan Thomas are running the council is fundamentally flawed and accident prone. Their administration has brought shame onto our borough and we've become a laughing stock.

Even more worrying is the fact that one of our MP's rather than standing up for his constituents, is the subject of a police enquiry following an alleged public order offence at his office.

In Barnet we have a long history of sending the monkey off for bushmeat, whilst the organgrinder plays on, in an ever more erratic and dodgy fashion. In the period since 2008, dozens of council officers have left the council with payoffs and non disclosure agreements, following cock ups and "in house" whitewash enquiries. All officially leave "by mutual consent".the Tory leadership stumbles from one crisis to the next. The people of Barnet get ever worse services. The sad truth about council services is that most of us don't use them most of the time. Usually it is just the elderly, the disabled and the vulnerable who suffer. The rest of us vote for tax cuts of 20p a week, and sit back in our comfy homes. The election omnishambles is unusual because everyone suffered. But don't forget, this is  a council that was forced to hand back millions in fees for parking permits because the Tory policy of milking the taxpayer was deemed illegal. Who "left by mutual consent" then? In fact I can only recall two Tories getting the boot from official positions. The first was former Councillor Kate Salinger, who got kicked off her role as on an important committee because she refused to vote for a payrise for her Tory mates, thinking it immoral in a time of austerity. The other was Brian Coleman, following his arrest for assaulting a woman in the street. Even then Coleman was only sacked when the Tory HQ intervened and forced the hand of the local party. Of course there will simply be aanother whitewash and in a few months, we'll all be writing outraged blogs at the next cock up and demanding yet anther inquiry (we've had one or two a year since this blog started). It really is shameful.

How to get the sack at Barnet Council - Andrew Travers gets the boot

How useless do you have to be to get the sack from the job of CEO of Barnet Council? This is a question I've asked myself on many occasion. The list of major cock ups that have caused major embarrassment is endless.

Here's just a few.

Getting sued by Catalyst (care home provider) because the private contractor wasn't making enough profits (but had seen an avoidable death and an outbreak of Legionella).

The Metpro scandal - Security firm operating for the council illegally, without SIO accreditation/CRB checks and overcharging.

Aerodrome Road - £11 million overspend on a £12 million budget.

Your Choice Barnet - Private company set up by council to run adult social care, which required a multi million bale out after a year.

Icelandic banks scandal - Millions lost as council tried to borrow money and play the markets (don't believe the spin, the council had huge interest charges to pay and huge lost interest on money).

But you don't get sacked for losing the taxpayers money in Barnet.

What about cocking up election arrangements?

Well Barnet did this in 2010 - Even Tory activists were saying it was outrageous and should be rerun. There was an inquiry and a whitewash. Did an heads roll? Of course not. Even though it was clear that the "irregularities" had cost Andrew Dismore the seat, it was swept under the carpet.

So imagine my surprise when I saw a report on the BBC that Andrew Travers, CEO of Barnet and election returning officer had been sacked.

The difference this time is that it seems the Tories think they were the ones who paid the price for the cock up. Here are a couple of tweets from Daniel Thomas, the beaten Tory candidate

1. Dan Thomas ‏@Daniel_Thomas81 May 7

   We all know why turnout in Barnet and Camden was lower than London average, the question is would it have made any difference?

2. Dan Thomas ‏@Daniel_Thomas81 May 7

   Just 100 people refused per polling station = 15,500 across borough. Many were people on the way to work.

He's not the only one. Tory GLA Leader Gareth Bacon has also been prattling on about it.

North London News ‏@NrthLondonNews 7h7 hours ago

Have Tories paid the price for election blunder in Barnet? @GarethBaconAM @Assembly_Tories Gareth Bacon Barnet Comments


So it is pretty clear to those of us who follow sucgh things. You can do what you like and it doesn't matter, so long as the Tories win in the election. If they think they've been shafted, you are out on your ear, before you can say Jack Robinson. I wonder how Andrew Dismore feels about this? 

Barnet CEO Andrew Travers - West Hendon Estate - Another blot on the CV of shame.

Who is the most powerful man in Barnet Council? IF you think it's the Leader of the Council, Richard Cornelius, think again. The real power behind the wheel is the CEO Andrew Travers. The Barnet Council website says of Mr Travers

Chief Executive: Barnet - Andrew Travers

• to lead the strategic management of the Council to ensure quality and best value for money
• to be the Council's principal policy and business adviser
• to be the managerial leader, ensuring that the employees of the Council deliver the agreed objectives and priorities
• to take the statutory responsibilities of Head of Paid Service.

email: andrew.travers@barnet.gov.uk

Mr Travers was appointed to the role, which commands a £180,000 salary in July 2013, having taken over from Nick Walkley as an interim in October 2012. Mr Walkley left Barnet council for a lower paid job at a smaller council, after the Barnet bloggers exposed a string of scandals, such as the Metpro scandal, where the council were using a security force to guard civic buildings and vulnerable people, paying above market rate to a company that wasn't accredited and used unchecked members of staff.

Since Mr Travers took over he's displayed a far lower key style. Wheras Walkley initially thought it was good for his career to be seen as high profile, Travers prefers to sit in the shadows. Sadly for the residents of the London Borough of Barnet, the performance of the council has not improved. Mr Travers term in office has seen the appalling  "Your Choice Barnet" scandal, where adult social care was outsourced to a private company, created by the council, only for the company to become technically insolvent and require a bail out of over a million pounds.

Travers job is to provide effective management, however even before he was confirmed in role and was operating as an interim, the Council lost a landmark case against its own residents, when the hiking of parking charges was shown to be illegal. The writing was on the wall long before the verdict, but Travers agreed to waste tens of thousands of pounds on the case. Despite Mr Travers being in charge of Council operations, not a peep was said by him.

Another cock up in Barnet resulted in the Council having to virtually close down, when it emerged that they had gotten rid of legally qualified staff resulting in a procedural cock up which resulted in all of the councils committees to not be legally constituted. This cock up nearly cost the Leader of the Council his job. The Law Gazette detailed just why it is not acceptable to follow the Travers lead Barnet model where the Monitoring officer isn't properly qualified. In fact, the Travers model means that the council doesn't have anyone left who knows how to do their job. This means that whatever happens, the council is at the mercy of private contractors as their is no in house capability left. 

The Barnet Eye has investigated the subject of outsourcing at length over the years, Most large commercial organisations refuse to outsource too much of their business to a single supplier. In Barnet, Andrew Travers has seen contract after contract go to Capita. Barnet has gained the nickname "Capitaville". Whilst Travers claims this has delivered savings, the council pointedly refused to do a public sector comparitor, to prove it. Canny companies use a range of suppliers and play them off against each other. Barnet simply sign huge monolithic contracts lasting ten years with Capita and hope for the best.

The latest cock up is in West Hendon, where the council is partnering with Barratt homes to demolish and rebuild a large housing estate. There is currently an inquiry running and evidence has emerged showing that leaseholders who'd bought properties under the right to buy legislation have been subject to compulsory purchase orders, forcing them out of their homes and paying them well under the market rate. As you will see from Mr Travers message below to staff, he pointedly ignores the injustice of this situation, failing even to mention the low valuations. He talks about the need to purchase the properties, but doesn't say a dickeybird about treating the victims of the policy fairly.

From: First Team
Sent: 23 January 2015 16:35
To: AllStaff
Subject: Weekly message from the Chief Executive

The story of the week for us has to be the start of the Public Inquiry into the compulsory purchase of homes bought under right to buy on the West Hendon estate. The council is arguing that we need to purchase these properties in order to continue to redevelop the estate.

Part of the reason for the national attention the Inquiry has attracted is that schemes like West Hendon have very much hit the media zeitgeist.  Some of this follows on from the New Era Estate in Newham where local residents were concerned about rent rises for existing tenants.  In West Hendon, the issue we have is how we support the residents who have moved into the estate during the hiatus before regeneration began.

But the central issue is really a discussion happening all around London about how can we transform estates such as this, which pretty much everyone  wants to see rebuilt, with private sector involvement. There simply isn’t the public sector finance available to do so; tens of millions of pounds would be needed in West Hendon.

Much of the national debate is also about how much estates should change. It is generally accepted that the big mass housing schemes of the 60s need replacing.  Built with high hopes, too many have in effect become ghettos of deprivation. But in changing the social mix of these estates, we have to be careful to support existing communities.

For the record, tenants on secure tenancies on the estate will move to the new development, home owners will be able to buy properties with shared equity and, of those who have moved so far, non-secure tenants have been found  homes elsewhere in the borough. Talk of people being sent to Luton are wide of the mark.

There will be a lot more West Hendons in London over the coming months and that debate about transforming the physical and social infrastructure of estates, while supporting existing residents, is set to rumble on for some time. 

Have a good weekend.

Andrew

Of course to the likes of Mr Travers, making sure that decvelopers like Barratts are kept sweet and can make huge profits is far more important than caring about the effect on little people.

Mr Travers is one of the authors of the One Barnet outsourcing project. Apparently his ambition is to be the first Council CEO to outsource the entire council function. We are seeing plans to even outsource areas such as social work. In his first ever email to staff  after he took over, he said the following and he's been true to his word

"In practice, this means we will need to accelerate the Wave 2 projects in the One Barnet programme and we will publish details of proposals for waste and street scene in Cabinet papers next week"

Mr Travers got the job on the basis that he is an expert in local government. Since he's been in post, Barnet has seen a whole string of well documented cock ups. What is bizarre is that no one ever talks about them being Andrew Travers responsibility. In part this is because it is convenient for the local opposition to "blame the Tories". What I find hard to understand is why the Tories are so keen to persevere with someone who has built a track record of disatsers in the Borough. I don't believe anyone in Barnet believes that it is right and just for the council simply to be able to take your house and  give you less than anyone else would, so that a private company can turn a big profit. Until we have a CEO of Barnet who cares about the people who pay his wages, the hundreds of thousands of ordinary council tax payers, sadly that is exactly what we will see more and more of.

The wheels are coming off the One Barnet juggernaut

One Barnet appears to be destroying the Barnet Conservative Party. On Saturday I made this statement in a blog

"Yesterday I emailed every Barnet Councillor and asked for them to comment on whether they thought due time had been given to allow proper scrutiny. As of last night, not a single Conservative Councillor had responded. I had not even received a read receipt. Today a strange thing happened. Several Barnet Tories emailed me using private accounts. All asked for complete confidentiality, which I respect. What they have said disturbs me. It appears as if the local party are putting intense pressure on Conservative Councillors to bury their heads in the sand. The emails all have a common theme. This is

a) They agree that the time is woefully inadequate
b) They have been discouraged from finding information out about the project
c) They have been assurred that everything will be alright
d) No evidence to back this claim up has been given and requests for such assurances have been slapped down.

Another common theme is that these councillors understand exactly how this will end. As far as they are concerned (given that they deplore both One Barnet and the Labour Party). It will end with both One Barnet contractors and the Labour Party running Barnet. When they lost the Branswick Park by-election they realised that they may have a problem. The recent press coverage of One Barnet has made them realise that their time may well be numbered, save a miracle. Every failure, every problem a Barnet resident has once One Barnet has been implemented will be a bad news story and lost votes for the Conservatives in 2014. "

I was not too surprised as  I often get emails from Conservative councillors giving me interesting snippets of information, if they want something to get into the public domain, but don't want to get blamed, it is a useful way of getting the information into the open. What flabbergasted me was the fact that yesterday ex Tory Councillor Brian Coleman went public with the full sordid details of just how bad things have got. The Hendon Times reports here on what Mr Coleman had to say

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/10070401.Coleman_labels_One_Barnet_scheme__nuts_/

The pressure was revealed to be

By this time the leader's blood pressure was rising until he finally jumped up "red in the face" and said unless the Conservative Group supported this, all the libraries would have to be closed and social services would be reduced to a crisis-only mode.

Another sign of the cracks was a couple of tweets today by Mike Freer MP, seeking to distance himself from his One Barnet baby. Could it be that Council Leader Richard Cornelius has found himself up a well known creek, asking his friends for a paddle.

Mike Freer MP ‏@mikefreermp

Meeting with the Chief Executive of the Council this morning, many routine items plus One Barnet update. #fb

Mike Freer MP ‏@mikefreermp

@_MrMustard as i haven't been Leader of the Council for nearly 3 years, he will be briefing me. #nobackseatdriver

All rather odd, isn't it

Richard Cornelius AKA Dr Evil EXPOSED !!!!!

Dr Evil sans Pussy

To celebrate the launch this week of the blockbuster Barnet film, Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble, we have a special Saturday List. This is Saturday List #20 - The five dastardly deeds of Dr Evil.

On Monday night's ITV London Tonight ( http://vimeo.com/51935140) , the Leader of Barnet Council, Richard Cornelius stated that "none of us like to be portrayed as Dr Evil", when talking about Charles Hondericks film "Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble". If Mr Cornelius has bothered to watch the film, he would have seen that Charles Honderick did not call him Dr Evil or even lay the blame for all the ills in Barnet at Mr Cornelius door.

As Richard Cornelius has decided that "Dr Evil" is a suitable moniker for himself, maybe we should examine exactly what has happened under his "Evil empire" ably assisted by his mega villain cronies. Here are a few highlights:

1. The closure of Friern Barnet Library. Dr Evils henchman, Bill Murphy admitted callous wanton act of cultural vandalism was done solely to grab a £400,000 profit on the sale of the building. Doubtless this will ultimately bu snapped up by a friendly local property developer and someone will make a fortune at the public expense.

2. The abolition of Pay and Display parking. Dr Evils regime employed a former employee of NCP (which became NSL), Mr John McArdle to "oversee the outsourcing of parking control". In a masterpiece of evilness, Pay and Display parking was abolished without debate handing control to NSL who run the "pay by phone" network. The brutal sudden  change was performed to ensure maximum profits for NSL, who run the system, with scant regard for businesses. In North Finchley and High Barnet, over 30 shops have closed as a result. In April McArdle completed his assignment and parking wardens were brought under the control of NSL and back office functions were moved to NSL's offices in Croyden. This cost 26 jobs in Barnet. Having successfully completed the destruction of Barnet's well run in house operation, John McArdle left Barnet Council. No prizes for guessing who he now works for. Yup, NSL. I am sure he'll get a good bonus. P.S. The Barnet Taxpayer is a million pounds worse off than expected, as revenues for parking have collapse, despite a record number of tickets being issued.

3. The outsourcing of Adult day care to Your Choice Barnet. This is a "Joint Venture" organisation, set up by Barnet Homes and Barnet Council. A director of this organisation was the woman who helped create it whilst at Barnet Council. Her name is Amanda Jackson. This new company came into existence in April and is responsible for looking after people with care needs. In the film Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble, John Sullivan, who has a 49 year old daughter who uses these services explains that his daughter is now charged £1.20 for a cup of coffee in a church hall, thanks to Your Choice Barnet. This organisation already has a deficit of £700,000 after a mere six months of operation.

4. Tax Dodging at the Town Hall. A Parliamentary committee was told by a reprsentative of the LGA that only 13 people in the UK, working for Local Authorities, are employed on "tax efficient" consultancy contracts. This news came as rather a surprise to me. As a Barnet blogger, I am aware of at least 14 in the London Borough of Barnet. If you wondered what Dr Evil thinks of such tax dodging activities, the answer was given when CEO Nick Walkley resigned. He appointed his deputy, Mr Andrew Travers, who is a consultant with a "tax efficient" contract, to replace Mr Walkley.

5. Bad Behaviour at the Town Hall. At the moment, the attitude of the Conservative Party, to those they rule has been in the public spotlight. Andrew Mitchell famously described the Police as Plebs. He eventually had to walk the plank for his outburst. What happens in Barnet under Dr Evil. Councillor Brian Coleman has been on a twelve year mission to drag the name of the local Conservative Party through the mud. He has been found gulity twice of sending abusive emails to members of the public. The first time in 2009, he was ordered to undertake training in how to respond politely to emails. He didn't take do it. Earlier this year he did it again. On one day he sent two different people abusive emails, both of which breached the standards code. He was ordered to apologise. He refused. To date, the victims of his outburst have not received apologies. What action did Dr Evil take? None to date. Brian Coleman was also arrested in September following a fracas involving a woman. On Monday, he was charged with assualt. It may surprise you to hear that on Thursday, he was still chairing the important Budget Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Unbelievably, Dr Evil seems to see nothing wrong in Coleman carrying on. It is believed that Dr Evil received a telephone call from Conservative Head Office. He has now tabled a motion for the local party to suspend the membership of the Conservative Party. This will be debated at the group meeting on Tuesday. What nobody has asked is whether he will be suspended as chair of the Budget OSC committee, if he is suspended. As he is still a councillor, there is no automatic reason why he should be. As an example of how brazen Brian Coleman is in his attitude, yesterday at approx 9.15 am, he pulled up in his car opposite the cafe owned by the woman he is charged with assaulting. He flounced out of his car and strode into MacDonalds for breakfast. It may amuse you to know that as he emerged, he was confronted by a local trader who said to him "Brian, I hear you've been a very very naughty boy. Does your mummy know how naughty you've been?" the response of Mr Coleman has not been accurately reported, but it appears he scurried off rather quickly. Rather interestingly, the local trader in question informed the Barnet Eye that he had always voted Conservative until Mr Coleman brought in the parking charges.

The Barnet Eye is in the process of recording a Dr Evil remix dance track. We are also planning to get some limited edition Dr Evil Tee Shirts manufactured.

Here is a list of forthcoming screenings of the film. Please come along

Sat. 27th Oct     2.30 - 4.00 pm New Barnet Community Centre, Victoria Road,  New Barnet,  EN4               Thurs. 1st Nov.   6.30 pm Cafe Buzz,  High road,  North Finchley,  N12                                             Tues 6th Nov  - 8.00 pm  North Road Community Centre, Edgware

Andrew Travers announces to Barnet Staff that the Democratic Process has been subverted

I was sent this joint email from Nick Walkley, the departing CEO of Barnet Council and Andrew Travers (Consultant) who is the interim CEO. It could not be more shocking

From: First Team [mailto:First.Team@barnet.gov.uk]
Sent: 26 October 2012 15:12
To: AllStaff
Subject: Weekly message from the Chief Executives

This Wednesday saw the end of the second phase of the Senior Management Restructure with Member Panels appointing Maryellen Salter to the role of Director of Assurance (and Monitoring Officer) and Dawn Wakeling to the role of Director of Adults and Communities (and statutory Director of Adult Social Services). Both Dawn and Maryellen will now work with current post holders to ensure a smooth transition in the new year.

I am sure you will join me in congratulating them and wishing them every success.

Perhaps more significantly, Members also interviewed and appointed Andrew Travers as interim Chief Executive. Andrew will take up his appointment on 1 December following my departure. It’s appropriate that we therefore share this message.

Nick

My first comment, obviously, has to be to repeat that this is an exciting time to become interim Chief Executive in Barnet. The Remuneration Committee that appointed me coincided to the day with the arrival of final tenders from the two NSCSO bidders and I will take up the post of Chief Executive a week before Cabinet debates final proposals. Supervising the changes that both NSCSO and DRS will bring to the council, to the borough and to staff (both those of you who will TUPE to the new providers and those remaining within the council) will obviously be my priority over the coming months.

Next week will see the publication of Cabinet papers that include the next stage in our medium term financial plan. For the first time, this will take the council beyond the current central government spending review and we are predicting that there will be further reductions in the council’s income under the next review. This means that I cannot simply be the ‘continuity Chief Executive’. This council is in a better place than many others because we looked over the horizon and faced up to the difficult challenges coming towards local government. I suspect this week’s announcement from Birmingham gives an early indication of the alternatives.

In practice, this means we will need to accelerate the Wave 2 projects in the One Barnet programme and we will publish details of proposals for waste and street scene in Cabinet papers next week. The changes that NSCSO and DRS will bring will mean that the definition of public sector will to some extent change in the borough as it will encompass those who move to private sector employers. However, the definition of public service will not change and I am delighted to be given this opportunity to work with so many people for whom this remains the central tenet of their working life.

Andrew

----------------------------

I have higlighted the key passage. In the first (in red) It is clear from the use of the words will bring that Mr Travers expects the nodding sheep in the Council chamber and the Leader to do his bidding and implement One Barnet Outsourcing, regardless of the risks.  

The second (in Blue), Mr Travers announces policy. It is not the role of officers to do this. It is the job of Councillors to set policy and officers to implement it.

It seems that the new interim CEO doesn't understand his job, or the way the Council is supposed to make decisions. I am appalled.

I will be drafting a communique, possibly with my fellow bloggers, to all 63 Barnet Councillors asking their opinion of Mr Travers decision to grab what vestage of credibility and power they once had.

Pray tell me Council Leader Cornelius, what do you think of this statement?

Barnet Council - cutting audit whilst increasing the need for it

Another week, more lunacy from Barnet Council. As readers of this blog will be aware, certain Barnet Council Cabinet members have gone on the attack about the critics of the One Barnet mega outsourcing project. They could have used their time far more effectively by actually reading the delegated powers reports which show what the council is up to and trying to understand the implications of the changes. It seems to fall to bloggers in Barnet to try and keep an eye on this. The lastest bit of lunacy is the plan to downsize the audit department. Sadly the real detail of this change is "exempt", which means we can't see it. I have no idea at all why a report explaining why we need less auditors needs to be exempted from public scrutiny (other than the contents will show the council are incompetent), but it is.

The public report is here.
http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s4946/1730%20-%20People%20Changes%20for%20Finance%20Internal%20Audit%20and%20Risk%20Management%20Public.pdf

You can read it here
1730 - People Changes for Finance Internal Audit and Risk Management Public

There are a couple of very revealing facts in the document. Perhaps the most worrying is the fact that the CEO, Mr Nick Walkley has created an organisation that nobody wants to work for

8.3 The change in the posts has occurred as they have not currently been filled after two unsuccessful recruitment drives.  

Then there is a rather odd statement in section 5 which deals with finance.

5.1.1 Overall the cost of the additional/amended posts will be met within the existing agreed budgets.  The change in posts will reduce the salary budget by approximately £9,000. However, this saving  will be used within the budget for training and development of staff through virement.

This phrase makes it clear that the department is being downsized and deskilled. It may amuse you to hear that I didn't know what the word Virement meant. I am sure you are all far cleverer than I am, so got the meaning immediately. Luckily in this day and age, we have on line dictionaries, so I looked it up

World English Dictionary

virement  (ˈvaɪəmənt, ˈvɪəmɑ̃)
— n
	an administrative transfer of funds from one part of a budget to another

So there you go, the £9,000 saving will be transferred to another budget. You may ask why this is important and why the Barnet Eye considers this to be highly worrying and highly dangerous. The reason is simple. The Metpro audit made it 100% clear that the Audit department was under strength. When it was announced that only ten out of 9,700 contracts had been effectively audited, this proved that something was wrong.

The audit department has undergone several restructures of late. This is merely the latest. As the council is planning to massively increase the number of outsourcing contracts under the One Barnet program, you would expect a large increase in the budget for staff for this department. As it is, staff are being cut, budgets are being cut and therefore even less scrutiny will take place of suppliers than is done currently. Even more worrying is that the council have admitted that they have become such a basket case council that even when they want to recruit new staff, they can't.

Barnet Council CEO Nick Walkley and Deputy CEO, Uber Consultant Andrew Travers have presided over a regime where they can't even get staff to work for Barnet anymore.In light of the Metpro audit, it cannot be argued that this is anything less than a disaster. The most worrying thing is what is in that exempt report and why us mere taxpayers are not allowed to see it. Barnet Council has a corrosive culture of secrecy. It cannot be argued that this is anything other than dangerous. This document proves it.

I await with interest Lord Palmers comments.