Labour pays consultants to find savings! (Norwich Liberal Democrats Online)

Norwich Liberal Democrats Online <info@norwichlibdems.org.uk>

Labour pays consultants to find savings!

August 17, 2009 4:05 PM

money going down a drain In a letter to the Norwich Evening News Judith Lubbock, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Eaton, criticises the Labour administration at City Hall for spending £90,000 of taxpayers money on private consultants.

Dear Evening News,

I am pleased that the Evening News, demonstrating the value of a strong local press, highlighted Liberal Democrat criticism of the decision by Norwich City Council to spend £90,000 of taxpayers money on private consultants (EN, 16th July).

These consultants have been brought in to save the council money. Yes, that's right, the logic of this Labour council dictates that spending £90,000 on private consultants will help the council save money.

The real problem with this is that the council employs a dedicated full-time 'transformation and efficiency' team. It is their job to find efficiency savings - this is what the council pays them, and pays them well, to do. So why are we shelling out for consultants when we employ staff to do the job?

These consultants Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu - headquarters in New York, no office in Norfolk - have no specific expertise in the way this council or this city is run.

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as Labour is concerned. To help improve the council's zero-star housing service after the Greyhound Opening scandal the council have, in classic New Labour style: "commissioned a market research company to identify a core set of tenant and leaseholder representatives and from those establish focus groups to support the work of each work theme." How much will this cost? Again, the council already employs 8 community engagement officers whose specific job is to engage residents. Why do we need a market research company to do it for us?

Are existing staff good enough? If they are, then why are we employing other people? If they are not, then they should be sacked or retrained. It's as simple as that. This appears to be a shameful waste of public money by this Labour council and I congratulate the Evening News for focusing their attention on our criticism of it.

Cllr Judith Lubbock

Liberal Democrat