Finding value for taxpayers

Sir, - You carried a report of the conviction of an information technology officer at Dundee City Council who, courtesy of his access to the authority’s finance systems, had created a series of false invoices purporting to come from their fuel supplier but incorporating his own bank account details. Simply because these invoices looked approved, the bills were paid.

While not that common, such crimes happen regularly.

Reports usually quote the amount as thousands or pounds or similar. But not in this case.

It was £1,065,085.32p. Don’t you just love the 32p?

Here’s the paradox. Dundee Council knew to the penny where the money went. It knew that all along.

What it did not know was what it was getting for the money.

In the case of these false invoices, the answer was nothing at all.

As the recently appointed convener of Fife Council’s standards and audit committee, I have already asked how do we know the same thing is not happening in Fife.

The answer is probably that we cannot ever know for sure.

A multi-billion pound a year operation with thousands of staff can never guarantee to be rogue free.

Procedures in Fife are good but it will be my task in office to see whether they can be made better.

A much bigger task, with the potential for much greater returns, is to answer the question, what are we getting for the money?

Or perhaps, are we getting the best value for the money? I’ve asked the question. Now to find the answer. Cllr Dave Dempsey. 7 Carlingnose Park, North Queensferry.