Reform to begin Musk-style audits of councils

I wonder if he will be investigated and found wanting *Silverbrooks?

He should be!!! What a farce.

FGT - I asked you about vanity projects and your own council?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

It will indeed visgirl. Transparency but with an eye to culling DEI nonsense. Meritocracy all the way and it doesn’t needed brightly coloured lanyards and posters to virtue signal either.

Helping disabled people gt into work and getting the necessary practical support in place is not wasting money. (and saves money on benefits)

What a sad, narrow society we will live in if we stop employing people with disabilities who manfully live up to a meritocracy with this initial support. Is this really what we want?

As regards lanyards -for goodness sake, they get reused year on year! Are we to crush all other sorts of diversity too? Turn the clock back on gay people when the likes of Andrew Tate spread their disgusting propaganda? Not my world.

I know nothing about Greater Manchester expenditures Wyllow. These days I have bigger fish to fry sadly. However I am impressed by our Mayor, Andy Burnham and our Chief Constable - Stephen Watson and his Operation Vulcan.

Operation Vulcan is a partnership response of 65 different agencies who collectively addressed embedded criminality in a specific area of Manchester. (Cheetham Hill & Strangeways). The criminality was centred around the supply of counterfeit goods, which had given the area a reputation for being the counterfeit capital of Europe.

correction

not
"What a sad, narrow society we will live in if we stop employing people with disabilities who manfully live up to a meritocracy"

but
""What a sad, narrow society we will live in if we stop employing people with disabilities who manage to live up to a meritocracy"

You seem a tad het up Wyllow. I shall now disengage. I don’t have the time nor inclination to smooth your ruffled feathers. Different opinions on topics are allowed.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I know nothing about Greater Manchester expenditures Wyllow. These days I have bigger fish to fry sadly. However I am impressed by our Mayor, Andy Burnham and our Chief Constable - Stephen Watson and his Operation Vulcan.

Operation Vulcan is a partnership response of 65 different agencies who collectively addressed embedded criminality in a specific area of Manchester. (Cheetham Hill & Strangeways). The criminality was centred around the supply of counterfeit goods, which had given the area a reputation for being the counterfeit capital of Europe.

I do realise/know your sad bigger fish FGT - but you managed a critique on Bradford?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

You seem a tad het up Wyllow. I shall now disengage. I don’t have the time nor inclination to smooth your ruffled feathers. Different opinions on topics are allowed.

Pax, 🙂
perhaps we both have ruffled feathers

but many different opinions on here not just mine.

My most ruffled feathers are the thought of cutting disability support into work, taking all the joy out of celebrating difference, and the idea that Kent council have appointed a numpty on accounting yet calling in a team to examine accounting.....

Because it was a topic I know something about and had impressed me in the past Wyllow.

However DEI initiatives and eye watering salaries for council workers championing such directives, less so.

Yes, Pax. 😊

I’ll be watching with great interest to see how the new Reform councils meet their statutory duties and residents expectations. Meanwhile, I’m glad I don’t live in Kent.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

You seem a tad het up Wyllow. I shall now disengage. I don’t have the time nor inclination to smooth your ruffled feathers. Different opinions on topics are allowed.

Just what I was thinking too.
There are plenty of wasteful Councils around as well as Bradford and Birmingham who have been showering cash on their pet projects for far too long.
If Reform want to bring in analysts from outside to assess things then why not? Shows that they’re serious about making their own Councils deliver value for money.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

My bugbear is procurement issues. A friend worked in local authority and 25 years ago she went to the local admin manager saying she needed a desk lamp and had found one in Ryman’s (her local store) for a tenner (which included VAT).

Oh no, she was told. Shecould only order one through the Council’s contracted supplier so was given a very thick full colour glossy catalogue.

Guess what? The same desk lamp as the one in Rymans was £85 (not including VAT).

I’ve always remembered this illustration of how money truly is wasted. There will be a lot of waste uncovered I bet.

I absolutely agree with you re procurement.

This does need looking at and improving.

I'm keeping an eye on Durham and Durham CC, as family live in the area. Locally thank goodness no change and the council can get on with the struggles they have.

I've just looked up and. found a 21 page summary of every single worker they. employ, what salary scale and short report of work done. Surely this is enough information?

Edit - thats a summary of my own local council not Durham.

GrannyGravy13

Nothing wrong with an in-depth look at the accounts, as long as they keep essential services.

All businesses and government bodies should look at how and where the money is spent.

Local councils already have governance and scrutiny committees for this and an annual external audit.

Cossy

GrannyGravy13

Nothing wrong with an in-depth look at the accounts, as long as they keep essential services.

All businesses and government bodies should look at how and where the money is spent.

Local councils already have governance and scrutiny committees for this and an annual external audit.

….run by councillors themselves of course, not by officers. It will be an interesting experiment I guess, for those who don’t live in the areas affected.

Introducing Musk style DOGE audits?
Audits can be useful, if they save more than they cost
They can be ethical, if they use genuine expertise, and not funnel work, resources, money and valuable data into their own businesses.
Has Musk been be ethical and effective? Will Reform follow Musk's example?
We are going to find out.

I shall be watching Reform with interest generally.
I think it’s good that we have a new political party to challenge the big two, but they will have to prove themselves of course.

I hope someone (an inquisitive journalist perhaps) will scrutinise these ‘independent teams’.

I have the following questions;

Who are they?

Have they got any affiliation with any Reform councillors / members? Any conflict of interest?

How much are they costing the tax payer?

Are they undertaking their duties according to due process and correct procedures?

Will they have ‘free’ access to individuals’ personal data held by the council? If so … why?

Just as Reform claims not to trust the current establishment I, for one, don’t trust Reform.

IMO these teams will find ‘mismanagement and overspending’, whether it actually exists or not. That’s their agenda; that’s the narrative; whatever they find will fit with that narrative.

God help us!

LizzieDrip

I hope someone (an inquisitive journalist perhaps) will scrutinise these ‘independent teams’.

I have the following questions;

Who are they?

Have they got any affiliation with any Reform councillors / members? Any conflict of interest?

How much are they costing the tax payer?

Are they undertaking their duties according to due process and correct procedures?

Will they have ‘free’ access to individuals’ personal data held by the council? If so … why?

Just as Reform claims not to trust the current establishment I, for one, don’t trust Reform.

IMO these teams will find ‘mismanagement and overspending’, whether it actually exists or not. That’s their agenda; that’s the narrative; whatever they find will fit with that narrative.

God help us!

The reassuring thing is that councils are very target driven, and so much of what they do is reported centrally. Funding is often dependent on bidding processes and achievements. What they do is in plain sight, and they will succeed or fail on that basis.

I decided to check out my council's audit as to whether it is internal or external and found this

"Yes, X Council is required by law to produce an annual Statement of Accounts, which is subject to external audit.

This audit ensures a true and fair view of the council's financial position, income, and expenditure.

The accounts are reviewed by EY, the external auditors appointed through the Public Sector Audit Appointment (PSAA) process

As regards the Public Sector Audit Appointment :
www.psaa.co.uk/about-us/

As you can read it is definitely an Independent body, however councils can opt out of the scheme.

However, "In the local audit system in England, 315 out of 317 local authorities (and 101 out of 104 police and fire bodies, and 38 of 38 other bodies) utilize Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited (PSAA).

So there is a pre-existing *independent audit body, nearly all councils use it: the information is there for councils to act on and do we need non independent politically biased expensive audits*

It seems to me that what matters is what councils do with these audits.

What [councils] do is in plain sight.

Exactly.

The thing about Reform is that are always in accusation mode.

Yusuf was interviewed by Lewis Goodall on LBC claiming there was 7 billion savings to made by scrapping DEI according to an independent think tank, the name of which he wouldn’t give on air but would tweet after the show. He hasn’t.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQy6V2pSZF4

And now Reform is claiming to have a team of world class software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors, working for free.

x.com/ZiaYusufUK/status/1929248578951618591

They say they are sending in forensic auditors. Not auditors. Forensic auditors. A forensic auditor is a specialized auditor who uses accounting and auditing techniques to investigate financial crimes, fraud, and misconduct.That is an accusation of concealment not of a policy that they just happened to disagree with because the Orange Oberführer says so.

What appalling people they all are, every last one of them.

Yusuf who bought his job as Reform Party Chair with a £200,000 donation is hardly a glowing example of meritocracy.

My understanding is that the current audits are primarily financial. PSAA checks that contracts have been put out to tender using the correct procedure, that's there no fraud, that the figures add up, etc.

I suspect the new "audit" will be different and will question why and how money is spent and will recommend scrapping projects it sees as pointless.

An example might be installing a children's playground. A traditional audit would check that all procedures have been followed and all money accounted for. The new audit might say it's a waste of money anyway and the whole project might be scrapped.

The majority of County Council spending is on statutory provision (social care and education), but other services such as libraries and country parks will be targets.

PS. Hope somebody does a pothole audit!

It would appear the tech entrepreneur is called Nathaniel Fried:

www.ceotodaymagazine.com/issues/2023/06/39/

Arron Banks (remember him?) is an adviser.

Fried is the one in the baseball cap and trainers.