Lawyers quiz council’s £40m spend
Thursday 22nd April 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Lawyers are being brought in to conduct investigations into how more than £40million was spent by Wolverhampton City Council.
A firm of solicitors from Birmingham will be appointed to investigate a failed deal, which would have seen £68million spent revolutionising the council’s computers and customer services.
The deal between the council and troubleshooting firm Axon was scrapped at the end of 2008 and the company was paid £7.1million of taxpayers’ money in compensation.
The Express & Star has also learned that legal services are being arranged to look into how £33million was spent on the controversial single status agreements between January and March 2008, which saw the pay of thousands of council workers re-negotiated.
Plans to appoint the lawyers and investigators were agreed last night at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the ruling Conservative cabinet.
Both investigations will look into decisions made prior to May 2008 when the Tories won control of the council from Labour.
Speaking after the meeting finance chief Councillor Wendy Thompson said: “We have appointed a partner from a prominent firm to carry out the investigation into the Axon deal.
“There are lessons that must be learned from what went wrong. On the single status issue we will investigate the procedures that took place leading up to £33million being paid out.
“A confidential internal audit raised concerns. The use of the money did not form its own item on the agenda for a council meeting, which it should have done.”
The budget for the legal services has not been disclosed, but is likely to run into thousands of pounds. Investigations are set to begin as soon as possible.
The £68million Axon deal to bring in a new IT system and cut jobs was set up by former chief executive Richard Carr under the previous Labour administration.
It was meant to save taxpayers £126million, but was scrapped by the Tories.
It was 12 months before the council and Axon came to an agreement over a pay-off to Axon for work already done, totalling £7.1million.
The council has been negotiating with trade union Unison over single status since 2007.
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More good money being thrown after bad – just how much more money do they want to waste. A tighther rein on the purse strings in what’s needed. Stop waste, reduce taxes
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This article is belittling all the hard work done by Wolverhampton councillors and workers. So what if a little money was wasted, they still do a great job for us all.
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Such as?
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here here such as what exactly
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Nice one Trevor. I never realized that 7 mil. was “a little money”, maybe you are just a little wrong. I hope you enjoy working for the council. Meanwhile, back on planet earth……
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Trever is probably someone who thinks Wolverhampton is also a nice place to live and thriving. He probably also lives somewhere like Tettenhall or probably not even in Wolverhampton at all.
Idiot
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Trevor Lloyd Baker must be having a laugh .The only hard work done by councillors is wasting our money and yes they do a great job of that
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Seriously, Trevor, seriously?
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Yes I am serious – thankyou for asking
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You obviously work for the council! No other moron would make such a comment. Give three examples within the last twelve months of the “great job” you claim they are doing.
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1. Caring for the vulnerable people in society through social care.
2. Clearing up all the rubbish in the city.
3. Educating our children.
I suppose your forgot about these “George”
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Having a relative being “cared” for, number 1 is debateable. I also have a relative who works in social care and she says its appalling, the council dont give a monkeys.
2. Rubbish clearing, thats a given, its any councils responsibility, nothing special.
3. I dont think the council directly educate our children do they? hmm, no, think you’ll find its the teachers who do that.
Think you’re clutching at straws mate.
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What about the money wasted on that stupid fountain. Does anyone else agree?
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A little money wasted? Trevor, what planet are you on? If £7.1m is a little sum to you then will you please pay my council tax? That’s “a little money” that could have been spent doing the great job you speak of. Everyone, including the councillors and workers, will be annoyed about this and will want to know what went wrong. It’s only belittling the incompetent people who allowed it to get to the mess it’s in.
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What’s the point?
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This is just another example of how much money (belonging to us the council tax payers) is wasted. Lessons to be learned is no excuse heads should roll and their pensions cancelled, oh forgot you cant sack anyone these days!
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It Trevor Baker thinks that £40 million is just a little money then what planet does he live on ? Google him to see other daft remarks he has made. I agree with George F – what’s the point anyway !
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Just as in government, a Labour council throws public money around willy nilly and the Tories have to come in and sort the mess out.
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perhaps they borrowed it to dudley council to build the new mosque.
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Think of all the good jobs that council folk do that you don’t have to do – clean, care, teach and adminster the city.
There are some very sorry people out there who don’t appreciate what they get from their local council.
People are far too happy to put them down but would be lost without the services they get!
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Most people who put them down suffer from council job envy. Although the article is about council wasted money and not the work force. I will always defend the public sector workers, but it’s difficult to defend those who control the budgets and waste lots of tax payers money!!
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Yoiu will be telling us next that you believe in Global Warming…..
The Global warming Loby have gone a bit quiet since that little eruption in Iceland.
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What a joke, what recesion ?, When you got clowns wasting money on everything apart of what it should be spent on, of course then your gona get problems. A bunch of Educated fools. Common sense is the way foward, you dont need a private education for that.Wake up and use your brains.
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40 million is a heck of a lot of money. How can this be an ‘overspend’. And it’s going to cost thousands more to trace it. Disgusting!!
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i suppose trevor lloyd baker sorts out the financial stuff at the council, u must be having a laugh if u think wolverhampton council actually does things,what i want to know is why the hell did they spend 4 mill on that stupid fountain and millions more on kitchens and bathrooms when they are on about scrapping the meals on wheels (how do the expect oaps to fend for themselves) therefore more ppl are gona lose their jobs its bloody riduculous my 4 yr old could run it better.
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Trevor, nobodies disputing the council do all of those good things….But this does not excuse the fact that £40,000,000 has been wasted.
Yes they do good things, particularly at grass roots level, however, decision making at a higher level is/was incompetant, inept and damn near criminal.
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This is a complete travesty. Do they take hard working, decent people of Wolverhampton for fools. Just look at the state of the City. Some areas of Wolverhampton is littered with rubbish and if you look at how our schools are doing in comparison to the national average – there again, we need to do better. What on earth is going on at that Council. I hope that a thorough investigation is made and all the findings published, its just ashame that they won’t be published before the general election!.
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It should be the police investigating, and then if inconsistencies found, people should start being sacked and facing jail. Too much money is wasted by councils, and it needs to be controlled. Councillors are not up to the job, and most employees seem to be employed not for their competence but for political correctness.
Time to employe the ‘right’ person for the job, and to stop excessive employment for ‘non’ jobs.
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What about the employee who was sacked for leaking information about Single Status?
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Wolverhampton council should get out of their comfy 1960′s abomination of a building and actually look at the City.
The Lonely Planet guide got it almost spot on, Im hoping the next visit ends up with just a scathing report, because the city is a dump.
The council cant keep flogging, Whitwick Manor, Bantock House and West Park as key features. So bloody what, Bantock house is great if you’re over 70, as is Whitwick Manor. And west park, is just a park, occupied by drunks and perverts hanging around the toilets.
Wolverhampton offers nothing special, is run down and a dump, managed by an inept council who are so blinkered they dont give a monkeys.
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Perhaps Wolverhampton used that money to bribe the authors of The Lonely Planet in order to get that rave review. Too bad they didn’t use another 20 million, chances are they could have tied Detroit in the survey.
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