KPMG report cost ¤60,000
THE Council has been criticised for spending ¤60,000 on a consultants’ report from KPMG.
Head of Finance Marie Whelan had just informed members that there was “no scope for requests” due to their tight finances.
Fine Gael Councillor Hubert Keaney said they were “always told there was no money to meet the demands of councillors” but said ¤60,000 was found to pay KMPG for a report on Sligo, most of which they already knew.
“The thing could be reduced down to about 6/7 pages but obviously they’re consultants who had to be paid ¤60,000,” he said.
“It’s alright saying things are tight but somehow we found ¤60,000 to pay for this,” he said.
“It mentions councillors but no councillor was asked for their input, which in my view was wrong. The last time we had a consultants’ report we were invited in to meet with the consultants,” he said.
Cllr Keaney encouraged everyone to read the report which he said had some interesting points.
He said if Sligo County Council were to collect the same percentage of revenue as Roscommon County Council (91%), it would “bring in ¤2 million” in rates, ¤900,000 in rent a year, ¤173,000 in loan repayments and ¤800,000 from Local Property Tax.”
“I’m sure if I can see those figures the Department can see them as well,” he added.
The meeting earlier heard that Sligo County Council remains “severely constrained” by the legacy debt of over ¤20 million, which is the largest of any local authority in the country.
That’s according to Council Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes’ foreword to the draft budget 2019 which was passed by the Council last week.
They have budgeted to spend ¤65m next year on local roads, housing, water, the environment, arts and other services - an increase of ¤1.2m on 2018.
Hayes said that despite the legacy debt, the “progress of recent years was maintained in 2018. He proposed continuing with strict budgetary control measures and ongoing improvement in all revenue collection areas into 2019.
He’s also proposed to go back into talks with the Department of Local Government to renegotiate Sligo County Council’s Financial Plan in light of the county’s designation in Ireland 2040 as a ‘growth centre’ and to ensure the council can deliver extra statutory obligations.
The biggest chunk of spending will be on roads next year, with almost ¤23million budgeted.