Friday
19
April
Senior council staff over ambitious on budgets
23/03/2020 @ 10:26
Senior staff who submit “unrealistic cuts” and “overambitious” money making schemes into the Powys County Council budget need to be accountable.
The Finance Panel will be asking the Chief Executive, Dr Caroline Turner to appear at it’s next meeting and explain how £5,440,000 of cuts and savings for the 2019/20 budget could be missed and whether senior staff are being held to account.
“This is not new it’s been going on for years and years. If this was the private sector and I was sitting opposite one of my managers I would be telling them: you don’t understand your service area, you should not be in your job basically.
“This is really serious, what’s been done when these people are called to account?
“Are we just sitting back and accepting it?
“The impact is carried over into the following years budget and results in more cuts or pressures.”
Finance portfolio holder Cllr Aled Davies answered: “There was a general consensus from senior managers that some areas could take further productions.
“It was a very difficult budget to set (2019/20), it was 9.5 per-cent and if these had been taken out it would have been near 15 per-cent.”
Finance panel chairman and independent member John Brautigam, said: “Perhaps the people in the room are not best placed to answer the question, it’s something we should pose to the chief executive and ask – what the hell’s going on?
Head of Finance, Jane Thomas, said: “In terms of assurance around performance management and accountability that’s for the corporate directors or chief executive to come in here and explain the processes in place.”
Cllr John Morris: “There is a political element, portfolio holders do have a responsibility to make sure their directors are keeping within budget.
“They cannot divorce themselves from this.”
He believed that the needing to get budgets back into a balanced position had not been taken seriously enough in the past.
Cllr Davies, responded that the budget responsibility was not just for cabinet by the whole council.
Cllr Davies, said: “We should not be asking officers to do the impossible sometimes by asking them to operate within impossible budgets.”
“There are a lot of political choices here.”
He added that it may be the case that PCC need to withdraw some services so that funding can be given to other areas.
In 2019/20 PCC was supposed to make cuts, cost reductions or avoidance measures worth £21,690,000 out of a £255million budget. But this target will be missed by nearly £5,440,000.
It is expected that a £1.475 million savings can be rolled over into the new financial year and made in 2020/21.
But this still leaves £4.26 million undelivered.
The Finance Panel will be asking the Chief Executive, Dr Caroline Turner to appear at it’s next meeting and explain how £5,440,000 of cuts and savings for the 2019/20 budget could be missed and whether senior staff are being held to account.
At the panel meeting on Friday, 20 March, Cllr David Thomas said: “There are six down as unrealistic, four down as overambitious and even one there that says the saving independent on grant funding and the application was unsuccessful.
“This is not new it’s been going on for years and years. If this was the private sector and I was sitting opposite one of my managers I would be telling them: you don’t understand your service area, you should not be in your job basically.“This is really serious, what’s been done when these people are called to account?
“Are we just sitting back and accepting it?
“The impact is carried over into the following years budget and results in more cuts or pressures.”
Finance portfolio holder Cllr Aled Davies answered: “There was a general consensus from senior managers that some areas could take further productions.
“It was a very difficult budget to set (2019/20), it was 9.5 per-cent and if these had been taken out it would have been near 15 per-cent.”
Finance panel chairman and independent member John Brautigam, said: “Perhaps the people in the room are not best placed to answer the question, it’s something we should pose to the chief executive and ask – what the hell’s going on?
Head of Finance, Jane Thomas, said: “In terms of assurance around performance management and accountability that’s for the corporate directors or chief executive to come in here and explain the processes in place.”
Cllr John Morris: “There is a political element, portfolio holders do have a responsibility to make sure their directors are keeping within budget.
“They cannot divorce themselves from this.”
He believed that the needing to get budgets back into a balanced position had not been taken seriously enough in the past.
Cllr Davies, responded that the budget responsibility was not just for cabinet by the whole council.
Cllr Davies, said: “We should not be asking officers to do the impossible sometimes by asking them to operate within impossible budgets.”
“There are a lot of political choices here.”
He added that it may be the case that PCC need to withdraw some services so that funding can be given to other areas.
In 2019/20 PCC was supposed to make cuts, cost reductions or avoidance measures worth £21,690,000 out of a £255million budget. But this target will be missed by nearly £5,440,000.
It is expected that a £1.475 million savings can be rolled over into the new financial year and made in 2020/21.
But this still leaves £4.26 million undelivered.
Photo: Powys County Council offices in Newtown
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service
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