Council cash claims
COUNCILS cannot provide clear and complete information on how they spend £21 billion of taxpayers’ money every year, a report by Scotland’s public spending watchdog has claimed.
Audit Scotland said data about how the £40,000 spent every minute by the 32 local authorities is often “of poor quality, unclear and incomplete”.
Important facts are found hidden away in lengthy reports, making effective scrutiny of performance difficult, it said. It also found a lack of balance in official reports, with positive messages taking precedence over areas that need improvement.
A lack of “benchmarking” has led to councillors failing to ask why other councils provide services cheaper or better, it said. There is also too much focus on computerisation of systems over good management.
One leading expert said it was evidence of the need for training for inexperienced councillors.
Audit Scotland’s repor t, Managing Performance: Are You Getting It Right?, also found “inconsistencies in the coverage
and quality of information available to enable councils to implement effectively performance management”.
Ac c o u n t s C o mmissi o n chairman John Baillie said such management delivers “huge benefits for councils, their staff and the quality and effectiveness of the services they offer”. He said it was important when facing financial pressures that effective performance management is in place to “maintain quality services and ensure they are getting the best value”.
The report advises councillors to make their reports “more balanced in terms of highlighting areas for improvement as well as the positive messages”. It adds: “Comparing performance trends against targets over time and with other councils can prompt questions about performance, such as ‘why is it other councils appear to be performing better than us?’ or ‘why are other councils apparently providing cheaper services?’”
Some councils have abandoned self-scrutiny in areas where external auditors and inspectors regularly investigate. But the report says: “External scrutiny is not a substitute for rigorous self-evaluation.”
Ross Martin, of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy, said the report was evidence of the need for councillors to be trained “to undertake very complex roles”.
Eben Wilson, of TaxpayerScotland, said: “Councils are f a i l i n g miser a bl y to be transparent.”