A Fife Councillor has hit out at a consultants’ report on the Council’s management structures, costing nearly a quarter of a million pounds. Labour Councillor David Ross, Kirkcaldy North, raised questions about the cost of the report at the Council’s Policy, Finance and Asset Management Committee last week.
“It is claimed that the proposals produced by KPMG at a cost of £220,000, could save the Council £11.2m, but Council officers were unable to justify this to the Committee. I have previously been told that all the proposals for savings for the coming year included in the report, had already been identified by the Council’s own management.” said Cllr Ross.
“This seems to be a case of the Council paying a large sum of money to consultants to tell us what the Council’s management know, or should know, already. The Council’s SNP/Libdem Administration have approved this expenditure at the same time as they are making cuts in schools, in residential homes and in many other services. We were told at the same Committee that 191 Council staff were made compulsorily redundant last year.
“This £220,000 wasted on a consultants report could have paid for 6 teachers or social workers for a year, or it could have kept Ardroy open for another year, fulfilling existing bookings and giving time to find a sustainable way forward for the Centre, or it could have deferred the massive rise to £25 for bulk refuse collections or deferred another rise in charges for community alarms.
“This is another example of the Council’s Administration wasting money in its attempts to cut back services instead of trying to defend and maintain them.”
