Governance

Old Models – Poor Directions

Brian Riley Local Colour, Money Matters, Political - Local , ,

Yesterday’s E.A.D.T., published the following letter:

New council H.Q. in Hadleigh will achieve the most savings

???????????????????????????????It’s all very well for the Leader of Babergh District Council to say that it is unlikely for Babergh’s and Mid Suffolk’s headquarters to be based in Hadleigh (EADT 25th October) – but this is precisely the direction indicated by the consultant’s report. Locating the main activities in Hadleigh and disposing of surplus sites and space will achieve a 50% reduction in costs. Relocating activities to the County’s building in Ipswich will achieve savings between 11% and 13%. Putting a new hub in the Ipswich fringe will only yield a 32% saving. The hub and spokes business and governance model is seductively simple but only suitable for banks, building societies and estate agents. It is recipe for senior management to distance themselves from the reality of the everyday lives in the areas they are supposed to be managing and directing. This is not a desirable way forward. Instead, both councils should focus on how value for money can be delivered to the residents because if monies are not spent wisely council taxes will rise.
Yours faithfully,
Brian Riley
District Councillor – Hadleigh North
County Councillor – Hadleigh

So far reaction has been favourable

Tower Hamlets

Brian Riley Political - Local, Political - National and other , ,

Tower Hamlets Coat of ArmsThe Spectator’s Coffee House Evening Blend reports that Tower Hamlets was  “a council ruled by a ‘medieval monarch’ that was ‘riddled with cronyism and corruption’. That was how Eric Pickles’ described the local authority ruled by Tower Hamlets’ First’s Lutfur Rahman. The Communities Secretary sent in three commissioners to take over the authority after a report by accountancy firm PwC found contracts were awarded without the appropriate paperwork and Rahman picked preferred companies. It said Tower Hamlets’ ‘current governance arrangements do not appear to be capable of preventing or responding appropriately to failures of the best value duty of the kind we have identified’. This is Pickles’ first intervention in a council since he sent commissioners to monitor Doncaster in 2010. His statement in the Commons today drew support from Labour, who are calling for Rahman to resign as Mayor. His way of governing and the rotten borough practices of the council leave him with no friends in other parties

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Exposure

Brian Riley Money Matters, Quotation of the day ,

ExposureI have just finished reading “Exposure – Inside the Olympus Scandal” which covers the journey by Michael Woodford from being CEO of Olympus, the Japanese imaging company, to the whistleblower who told the world about the financial, accounting and governance irregularities in the company.
Much of the book can be quite technical as it tracks the money. On the other hand it contains truths which can be carried on to many areas. For example:
“Sales is in large part pure hard work; in simple terms getting what you have to show in front of people. It’s a numbers game. The more people you show, the more you will sell. And just be pleasant, natural, honest and listen. We all sell ourselves all the time.”
More interesting (from the governance point of view) is this extract (originally addressed to the company’s Board of Directors):
“Ignorance is no defence. If you were there and not aware of it, then you were incompetent. If you were there, and aware of it without asking tough questions, then you were negligent. Either way, you need to leave.”
The last quotation explains, as well as any, the need for Councillors to be challenging. They are the equivalent of non-executive directors who represent constituents rather than shareholders and practice incompetent behaviour at their peril.