Looking through the supplier payments over £500 I note with interest that in December the Council paid invoices to Agilisys worth £300,718.80. I believe that Agilisys are the council's implementation partner for the One Barnet programme.
Now in the papers for the forthcoming cabinet meeting there is a rather disparaging remark concerning public consultation which says, "Although many correspondents suggested alternatives to reductions in the specific service for which they were campaigning, this was almost all disappointingly vague – back office costs should be cut before frontline services are touched and senior staff pay and councillor allowances should be cut. None of the suggestions came near to meeting the financial challenge facing the council or the need to make substantial year on year savings."
Well, from my perspective, there have been a number of very sound proposals to save money and cutting consultant costs was pretty near the top. I hate being told by the council that there are no alternatives when, to me, there are some very real alternatives to cutting front line services. It's all about priorities and in my humble opinion the council have got their's wrong.
I'm going to dig out that quote, it's priceless! Fancy us, lowly individual residents, not having an overview of the entire council budget. Our bad for being too dog tired after work, or something like that.
ReplyDeleteHi Vicki, the quote is at the top of page 257 of the cabinet papers (Appendix 1 Agenda Item 5E)
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