Lord Pickles delivers the Barnet Tories a lesson in accountability

Lord Pickles - Barnet Blogger Superfan!

Apologies to all my loyal readers who were eagerly awaiting a joke this morning. Fortunately I found something even funnier than the joke I had prepared. As most of my Barnet readers will know, my fellow blogger Mrs Angry's political beliefs are firmly placed on the left of the left, no Blairite, she. Oddly one of her biggest admirers (well he likes all of us Barnet bloggers, but especially her) is the former Conservative local government secretary, Lord Pickles. Recently the two have become pen pals. Being a bluff Yorkshireman, Lord Pickles has long been an admirer of Mrs Angry's feistyness and straight talking. He also, as a proper Conservative, he likes the idea of local residents holding their local authority to account. Mrs Angry wrote to Lord Pickles, asking him of his opinion of the attempts by Barnets Conservatives to restrict the rights of the public to ask questions at Council meetings.

Lord Pickles response leaves no one in  any doubt.



Dear Theresa (or Mrs Angry, if I may)

I am pleased to see that you and your fellow citizen journalists and armchair auditors are continuing to highlight how councils can further save taxpayers’ money. I hope that the legal rights to report and film council meetings under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 have proved useful. You might find of interest that MHCLG has announced a post-implementation review into the 2014 Act yesterday, which will include looking at whether the financial information provided in local authority accounts facilitates scrutiny by local taxpayers and the local press.

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-07-10/HCWS1706/

 In relation to your concerns about questions from the public at council meetings, public participation is an important part of council scrutiny and helps keep councillors (of all political colours) on their toes. I will table some Parliamentary Questions on the issue of questions to Ministers on this matter. With best wishes, 
 Rt Hon The Lord Pickles

All of the political parties have their strengths and weaknesses. Whatever you may think of the Conservatives, they have historically prided themselves on both their commitment to openness and to their commitment to be prudent with taxpayers pennies. Lord Pickles is wise enough to know that difficult questions from committed citizens are the best way to ensure good local government. Lord Pickles knows all too well that transparency allows people like myself and Mrs Angry to keep an eye on the council. A sensible council would embrace this and use it to drive down costs and inefficiency. Lord Pickles knows all to well that the reason Barnet Council don't like this is because they are going through a very difficult period, but unlike the Tory Leadership, Lord Pickles is wise enough to know that with a big majority and three years to the next council election, they should be listening to bloggers and residents, where savings and efficiencies are identified, even if these are difficult.

The sad truth is that the mess the council have found themselves in, is wholly because they didn't listen to their own residents before embarking on the One Barnet program. It is a matter of public record that Barnet failed to properly consult. The only reason that the deal wasn't thrown out was the Judge ruled that the case brought by residents was out of time, and the council escaped on a technicality. Mrs Angry, who rather enjoys corresponding with elderly gentlemen from political parties she dislikes, also emailed Lord Palmer, who was a Lib Dem and chair of Barnet Council's audit committee between 2010 and 2014. Lord Palmer said this

'I suspect that they are not breaking the law but what they are doing is against guidance'

Lord Palmer also described the changes as disturbing. At a recent meeting Mrs Angry asked the chair proposing the changes and the monitoring officer if they'd read the guidance Lord Palmer referred to. They both, rather shamefacedly admitted they hadn't. Sadly this didn't prevent them from changing the rules.

If you agree with the esteemed Lord Pickles and Palmer that Barnet Council should be well run, open and transparent, please Click here and sign the petition started by John Dix to oppose these changes. People such as myself, John Dix and Theresa Musgrove dedicate a huge amount of our time to writing blogs and keeping an eye on the council. All we ever ask in return is that if you agree with us, you occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. John is around 50 signatures short of 1,000 which is a huge number for a petition concerning technical arrangements at the council. Please ensure that we hit this milestone today.

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.

Barneteye TV : Metpro 3 : The Weakness in Barnet Council Audit

Lord Palmer succinctly outlines why Barnet Council Audit is not fit for purpose, with a mass outsourcing process looming. A lovely cameo appearance from Non Stick Nick Walkley. Lord PAlmer praises the efforts of bloggers