Time to get some city council facts straight
THE Tony Morris “letter factory” continues in full production I notice – letters published three consecutive days this week! Is this a record?
Tony’s contribution on the subject of Nottingham City Council finances (“City council finances in disarray – again, Opinion, December 7) has some valid points but throws in irrelevancies – eg what has the Arnold Trussell Foodbank (based in the county) to do with city council finances!?
If Mr Morris had followed the Post’s excellent coverage of the city council’s financial difficulties over the past few months he would be aware that the council is currently being monitored by the curiously titled Improvement and Assurances Board, whose work is part of the “extraordinary measures... implemented by the Government” Mr Morris calls for and seems unaware of.
He suggests “some councillors... have their responsibilities removed...“, revealing a worrying lack of knowledge of the workings of local government and its financial procedures.
Why does he think that councillors need to have “experience with management and finance”?
They are elected representatives required to make strategic decisions on behalf of the electorate on many local issues and to govern the workings of the council.
There isn’t a requirement for accountancy or management qualifications – professionally qualified staff are employed for these purposes!
He’s right that some decisions can be open to question politically but so long as they are legal (guided by the monitoring officer) and comply with finance standing orders (advised by the chief financial officer) they are implemented and then subject to independent audit.
There is nothing wrong with David Mellen not knowing of the crediting of £15.8 million to the wrong account. The responsibility for allocating money to the correct account rests with officers, for whom there may now be consequences arising from this significant accounting error! Mr Morris, councillors aren’t in the council offices directing every pound of income (totalling millions) into the correct accounts nor are they sitting with a pile of cheques to sign for each item of expenditure! NOT their job!
It seems that once the error was uncovered David Mellen was informed. He has subsequently been open with city residents in revealing the accounting error, explaining corrective action to be taken and should then ensure it’s implementation. Now THAT IS his job, Mr Morris!
Richard Chamberlain Carlton