Not quite the highly publicised 'forensic audit', but the Assembly's own audit panel met this afternoon. On the agenda was a selection of dispassionate audit reports which gave a snapshot of the situation at City Hall in April, May and June this year. They show some of the chaos that greeted the new administration:
Budgetary Control
A random sample picked up the fact that two out of five budget holding managers could not gain access to vital monitoring information on the accounts database, which didn't seem to be a problem in those plentiful times. In the case of virements from one budget to another, a random sample found that two in ten had not been instigated by the budget holder. The system has now been made more accountable.
Older Peoples' Strategy
This Livingstone creation was managed by an 'advisory group' which had not met since April 2007! Auditors felt there was no clear view as to the role of the group, perhaps not surprisingly as no terms of reference could be found. Their 'action plan' had not been updated since September 2006. Nobody at the audit panel knew who the Chairman of the panel was, or the names of its members. This looks like a candidate for the current mayor's savings drive - after all, we won't miss what we've never had...
Accessible Communications
Weren't accessible, not clear on the website, or at the front desk. The 'Accessible Communications Working Group' had no terms of reference and had not reviewed the policy, but at least they had met, albeit 'irregularly'.
If you are going to boast that you provide translations into different languages and braille, it is inexcusable to fail to do so. Improvements have been promised and we will be reviewing progress in January.
Mobile Phones and Electronic Devices
Keeping track of these had been difficult, particularly in the days following the election. We were assured that all the ex advisors and members had now returned the GLA's equipment, after prompting in a few cases.
3 comments:
Thank you for voting against Boris's proposed amnesty.
However kind the gesture may appear, the unintended consequence of such actions is further illegal immigration.
Let's be clear about this - what was proposed by the greens on Wednesday bore little resemblance to what Boris said during the campaign.
I have some sympathy for a limited amnesty for the right individuals and with strong border controls in place to prevent others taking advantage. The greens were proposing a blanket amnesty for an estimated 500,000 illegals with no improvement to border controls.
Any reasonable person would have voted against - unless they were just doing it for cheap political point scoring...
And what do our local greens have to say about a policy that would increase the demand for power, water and housebuilding??
Transient workers who have no long-term stake in the social and built community infrastructure or local environment are hardly likely to care for it.
“When nobody owns, nobody cares”. Was that Mrs Thatcher?
Like you, I would want safeguards.
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