Financial crisis at Haringey Council
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, at 00:18, Wed 1 February 2006:
I wanted to update you on an important issue that my Lib Dem colleagues on the Council, led by Councillor Neil Williams have uncovered.
The Lib Dems on Haringey council have uncovered a few things, some more serious than others.
The Labour Council Leader spent £2270 on a plasma tv for his office, hardly essential on the scale of things.
Sadly the main news is very bad news for Council Tax payers in Haringey.
Basically - the Audit Commission has produced a damning report on the mishandling by the Labour-run council of an IT project called 'Tech Refresh'. There is an overspend of £11 million on the project (which Lib Dem councillors were originally told was budgeted to cost around £5 million in total!) - and with the work still going on, the Council has admitted it may end up costing even more.
It can sometimes be hard to visualise exactly what a sum with lots of zeroes on it means in actual day-to-day life but this overspend is equivalent to putting an extra 10% on Council Tax bills for a year - just to cover the overspend.
Apart from the financial mess, there's also the question of why straight answers have not been given to Lib Dem councillors who have queried the project in the past. But for the moment, we have the damning verdict from the Audit Commission - who have criticised the lack of clear audit trails, the lack of accurate reporting of overspending and the poor attendance at key meetings by some of those responsible for running the project."
Their verdict is that the £10 million extra that has been ploughed in may not give value for money and is the result of "significant failures" by the Haringey Council.
I'm sure this is a story that will - quite rightly - run and run, and I'll keep you updated on any major developments
Best, Lynne ps The postal surveys that so many of you completed late last year, are finally moving through Royal Mail and you should start receiving replies soon.
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Posted by Mr Brij Sharma, 10:49, Thu 2 February 2006: (Is this post abusive?) #
A few thoughts: (1) IT overspend seems to be the automatic result of entrusting inexperienced council officials with complex IT projects - when will the lessons be learned? (2) Councillors should be held personally liable for mismanagement of contracts and suppliers - maybe this will make them examine things like IT services contracts with the scrutiny they deserve (3) I don't recall being asked whether I thought the 'tech refresh' project was a good idea, or being presented with a cost-benefit analysis with which to make an informed decision.