IT Costs - £2 million spent with Logica CMG

Reviewing the October to December supplier payments I notice that during this three month period LogicaCMG UK Ltd have been paid just over £1.2m (£302,558 on consultancy fees,£12,689 on IT Services, £19,000 on software purchases and £867,672.02 on software licenses and support). Looking back through the previous supplier payments it appears that they were paid £52,470.93 in the period July-September and £791,744.98 in the period April-June. In total, for the first nine months of the financial year that comes to the princely sum of £2,046,134.93. Just what are Logica doing at Barnet that is so expensive and why aren't councillors at least asking the question.

I suppose this makes the £150,625 replacing the air conditioning units in the data centre at NLBP seem quite modest by comparison. I know that a decent IT system can be essential tool for running a successful business but staying solvent also helps. Given budget pressures we face are we absolutely sure this cost could not be reduced?

Consultancy Spend

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.

Council and Public Participation

Last night Mr Reasonable attended the Special Committee (Constitution) at Hendon Town Hall. This is where councillors discuss amendments to the constitution. There were a number of proposed amendments to the way motions are dealt with in council meetings and it seemed to be proposing significant restrictions on who could speak. I was surprised there wasn't much more of a discussion about what seems to be an ever increasing restriction of councillors rights to speak. If I was a councillor I would have been kicking up merry hell but obviously I do not understand the subtleties of what was being proposed.

I was there to ask about the role of public participation in the overview and scrutiny process. One councillor did ask why I had put forward such a modest proposal on public participation. I made the point that I would love to see a root and branch review of the way the council involves the public but that the current restrictions in the constitution meant that I could only address what was on the agenda i.e. the overview and scrutiny process. There followed much debate about the issue of public particpation, but the impression I was left with was that the ruling group really don't want the public involved. Part of me wonders why I bother going all the way over to Hendon just to be ignored, but my view is that if we don't keep reminding the councillors that they are supposed to be there to represent us, the residents, they will take our non attendance as a signal that what they are doing is ok - and it isn't!

Senior Council Officer Salaries

I found this on the council's website which may be of interest to people. It also helps to set my previous post into some context. Of course it is missing the salary of the Deputy Chief Executive who, as we all know, is a contractor.

Another Senior Post Held by a Contractor

Looking through the expenses payments I see that Advance HR Consulting is yet again in receipt of a decent slug of money, £27,000 in the last three months and £28,750 from Jul-Sept.Interestingly the sole director of this company is Mr Jason Wheatley Interim Resourcing, Performance & Talent Manager at Barnet Council. According to Mr Wheatley's Linkedin page he has been at Barnet since May 2009. Now don't get me wrong. I have no issue with Mr Wheatley. However I do have an issue with the council's strategy of employing subcontractors on "interim" posts who end up at Barnet for prolonged periods. 21 months in an "interim" post seems excessive to me. What do other people think?

Pledgebank - its back!

Well I am thrilled that someone from Barnet Council reads my blog! This evening, checking the council website I see that Pledgebank has got its own link in the sidebar. Well done Barnet.

Where oh where has Pledgebank gone?

Having spent rather a lot of money to build a beautiful Pledgebank website I thought I would take a look and see how it was doing. But where is this beautiful website? Not on the front page of the Council's website. So I enter Pledgebank into the search box. Up come lots of pages but none of them are Pledgebank. Wait, in the side bar of the Community and Living page is a link to Pledgebank. I click on it only to find it clicks through to the free, standard, UK Pledgebank website with Vicki Morris' pledge for the march on Sunday top of the successful pledges. I know I am trying to make this a bit humorous but actually it makes me rather cross. The Council has spent a lot of money building a bespoke Pledgebank website and then burying so deeply in the recesses of the councils main website that it is impossible to find. What a complete waste of money!