£7.4 million wasted on fat cat consultants
Lambeth’s Liberal Democrat and Conservative Councillors have now spent £7 million on consultancy fees since taking office in 2002. The huge bill will come as a surprise to the thousands of residents who have criticised the council for deteriorating services in parking, benefits, housing and others since May 2002. £4.4 million was spent on external advice on how to run council services in 2003 and the figure was £3 million in 2004. The starkest example of wasted money came during Lambeth’s “housing reframing”, the process which shut down local housing offices. Consultants were paid huge sums to give their expert advice on how to run services to tenants, but neglected to consult tenants themselves. Another example of waste is when the social services chief was replaced by the Lib Dems in 2002 by a consultant earning £850 per day, or £200,000 per year. The spending has been denounced by Labour Councillors, accusing the Lib Dem/Tory Administration of “wasting council tax payers money.” Labour councillors believe that a council which engaged with the local community and avoided Lib Dem incompetence would have been able to save millions off the £7.4 million bill. Councillor Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Labour Group commented: “With no direction and no idea how to run an local council, the Liberal Democrats have fallen back on fat cat consultants to show them how to do their job." “Why are they spending £7.4 million
asking expensive consultants how to provide services, when they could
just ask local people at a fraction of the cost?”
|
