As I've always said, Council officers treat the Councillors like mushrooms - feed them sh*t and keep them in the dark.
Conwy County Council slammed by auditors in damning reportby David Powell, DPW West Aug 16 2012WATCHDOGS have criticised a council for failing to monitor how it spends public money.
In a critical report, auditors KPMG highlighted how Conwy mishandled projects like Maesdu Road Bridge, the ex-Dinosaur World site and Llandudno Swimming Pool.
Clwyd West MP David Jones called the report “troubling” and cited a “culture of secrecy” at the authority.
Conwy Council says it is putting its house in order. Its audit committee will study KPMG’s 31-page report at a special meeting on Monday.
KPMG had agreed with the council to carry out a review of Conwy contracting procedures as a result of overspends on some large capital projects.
On the controversial £2m overspend on Maesdu Bridge, KPMG says a complex contract was left to inexperienced staff with insufficient support.
The council let the contract based on engineers’ time rather than setting a fixed price, so the cost was difficult to control.
The council didn’t include some foreseeable costs like a replacement bus service.
KPMG say the former Dinosaur World building – turned into a Forest School – and Llandudno Pool had “weak control” or “poor contract management”. Officers invited potential contractors to tender for the Forest School Project but only gave them three days to reply.
On the pool, it originally was to cost £5,014,745 but the final cost was £6,254,000, an increase of 25%. Overall, KPMG found: “The council performs inconsistently. Some contracts are applied correctly and some examples of good practice exist (Eirias Park project).
“However many aspects of the contracting process need improving, including the way procedures are applied in many council services.” It adds: “The council is not always able to demonstrate it has delivered value for money.” KPMG recommends Conwy monitors large projects better.
The auditors accept Conwy is trying to improve by training managers and doing internal audits in risk areas. For example, officers are reporting progress over the £18m Ysgol Y Gogarth reconstruction fortnightly to an executive body. But KPMG stress Conwy generally still has “significant work to do”. Only then can it “be confident all third party expenditure is being procured, managed and monitored” efficiently.
KPMG said Conwy kept details of claims against and by the council over the Maesdu Road Bridge from councillors.Clwyd West MP David Jones said: “This is clearly a troubling report. It’s worrying that senior officials did not share details of the progress of the (bridge) work with council members which means taxpayers’ money was spent without sufficient scrutiny.” He claimed parts of the bridge fiasco suggest a “culture of secrecy” and called for an open debate in full council.
Conwy council said: “KPMG included a number of key recommendations within the report. In response to these, officers have already developed an action plan and progress will be monitored as part of the Authority’s service performance review process.”
