Quote:
Originally Posted by jaysay
Yes Graham and they also scrapped the Works department in 2002 which was a profit making department keeping money within the council and bringing in money from outside contracts, a fact that was never taken into consideration when setting the budget, meaning they had to find around a extra £700,000 just to stand still, plus using rebates that they weren't entitled to, to the tune of £560,000, its hardley any surprise they left a huge budget deficit, which has now been addessed and the council finances are back on track, and back in the black
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The first bit is somewhat right. Labour scrapped outside contracts. Well Mike Chambers Chief Exec did and I am not sure how much authority he had. At the end of the day it was Labour's fault. Such as the grass cutting contract at the college had come up for renewal and we didn't tender. There is a lot more to this story and I never got the bottom because the people involved have gone.
And guess the rebel at the time was! So we're on the same side and I can count on your support then!
The second bit is rubbish. The accounts according to De Loitte Touche were a mess. Paper profits were being recorded between an antiquated broken down green screen computer system and for the 20 weeks (intermittant) it had been down, an old ledger book. All the payments were historical and not relevant to what was happening as they were internal contracts from the old Tory loony days of CCT (Compulsory Competitive Tendering). £700,000, it might as well have been 700,000 washers, it was paper money, not Tax Payers money.
It still happens now. There is a payment from the Market Hall for Central Services for £175,000 which no-one can work out what it is for. It makes the Market Hall appear to be just keeping it's head above water and why we have higher than necessary rent increases and why byzantine accounts frightened off the private sector.