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£500k bill for advisers hired to save money
Spending on consultants under fire as staff cuts loom
TOWN Hall chiefs have splashed out £500,000 on hiring consultants to tell them how to save money.
Figures unearthed by the New Journal show how Camden Council’s savings drive has in itself been a costly operation.
The cost of tracing “efficiency savings” is put at £495,950 after outside consultants KPMG, a multinational firm of management advisers, were called in.
The final bill – released to the New Journal under the Freedom of Information Act – is just short of a £500,000 threshold at which point council officials must consult elected councillors over spending.
Unions have questioned the decision to pay so much for consultants at a time when they are locked in talks over potential staff cuts.
The Town Hall is scouring budgets for £14 million worth of savings – £7.5 million of which is likely to be made up of staffing cuts.
Every council department is looking to save five per cent, with Camden’s Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition gearing up to meet an election promise to freeze council tax. Several high-profile employees, including Borough Solicitor Alison Lowton, have already left the Town Hall in the shake-up.
David Eggmore, from Camden Unison, the trade union which represents Town Hall staff, said: “They are trying to find £14 million of savings – here is a half a million pounds of spending we didn’t need. We can see no reason why KMPG was brought in to do this. We haven’t even seen their report. We just get told such and such is in line with recommendations made by KPMG.”
The company was hired in late March, just before Labour lost control of the Town Hall in May’s council elections.
Opposition Labour leader Councillor Anna Stewart said: “In the end I think it is an awful lot of money. We began it as a pilot scheme because it was in the middle of the election campaign. We told officers they could use consultants but we did not say how much could be spent on it.”
Cllr Stewart added: “The important thing is what the KMPG report is saying. The Liberal Democrats and the Tories are using it as a hook to pursue what is really a right-wing agenda of cuts. I am worried about how it will affect services and how the cuts will affect staff morale.”
The New Journal revealed last week how one consultant, Jonathan Berlusconi, has been paid more than £800 a day in the role of interim head of customer services.
Lib Dem finance chief Councillor Janet Grauberg said Mr Berlusconi’s contract had begun before Labour left office.
With regard to the KMPG work, she added: “Again, this was commissioned by the previous Labour administration. I’m not saying consultants are always a bad thing. They can help by coming at things from a different perspective. But there must be a system in place where we keep spending on consultants under review.”
Cllr Grauberg added: “The money that has been spent on this work will enable us to find savings and work more efficiently as a council.” |
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