4 July - If their staff have it right Bexley Council is heading towards a whole load of trouble
There have been too many things to attend to recently and this blog is right
at the bottom of the priority list but the stream of critical comment from
inside Bexley Council continues unabated. Some of the internal politics is a
little over my head and probably Bexley residents will not be very interested in
it right now but it will hit them in the pocket next year and beyond.
For readers who may be interested the following is put together using only extracts from correspondence received
over the past two weeks. Except for a few conjunctions the words are not mine,
they come from a variety of sources and patched together
in a way which is inevitably a little disjointed and possibly repetitive but I
am sure you will get the general picture.
Experienced Council staff are worried, and you should be too. (With apologies, there is more of this to come.)
Here we go…
Jackie Belton has the begging bowl out asking for more. Maybe she should take lessons
from Barnet Council which claimed £4 million back from Capita for failing to provide
adequate services. It was common knowledge controls didn’t exist, hence the £2 million
fraud. Their systems like Integra were not set up properly.
This is a big incentive and a job opportunity for Nickie Morris to #doitforBexley. Integra is replacing the outdated systems that Bexley has
used, and no doubt it will be a success. Everything she did at Barnet was. It must have been
for her to get the job as the top paid consultant in Bexley. Apologies for the sarcasm but no one is worth £1,000 a day.
The job advert for the new role says Finance are leaving oneSource. If it fails then
claim compensation as whoever was in charge must have failed. Only for two years that person
was our own Director of Finance. Can you sue yourself?
You said on 3rd March
that Bexley had bought Axiom and Paul Thorogood recommended it. You also reported that he bought Axiom for oneSource when he was their Finance
Director but they rejected it as being not fit for purpose.
Paul Thorogood worked for Capita and Barnet for a number of years and they
had Axiom. Barnet kicked out Capita as they couldn’t manage the Finance Department properly.
When will our Finance Director learn about Axiom? Few Councils still use it. Barnet
used Axiom, you can check that out on its website. Why does he like the product
so much? When the Council updates its payments over £500 you can see how much it paid.
A short history lesson for you…
2013 Capita take over Barnet Council. As part of the solution they offer to change systems bringing
in Integra and Axiom.
2018 and oneSource Director of Finance Paul Thorogood acquires Axiom for the
partnership. However he moves to Bexley and before the system is set up, it is
jettisoned by oneSource. They decide to go to the cloud. The relationship
between Paul Thorogood and oneSource turns sour.
2019 and Nickie Morris from Barnet gets a consultant’s job working for Paul Thorogood.
2020 with ex-Barnet head working alongside her old friend and mentor Bexley Council make two
big purchases as they decide to take over the Council from oneSource - Bringing in Integra and Axiom!
An admission by the Director of Finance in Bexley in his Medium Term Financial Statement…
Financial Services may get worse before they get better said the
Director of Finance in Section 13 of the MTFS. And now we have Covid and a big black hole!
To add to the woes we have new IT systems and many experienced staff have left to be replaced by consultants.
We need “Inspirational Leadership” but never fear, there is an improvement
plan on its way. It’s a bit late considering the Finance Director has been in charge for two years now.
Funnily enough the same thing was promised in Barnet in 2013 with the Axiom
forecasting, Integra systems and a Paul Thorogood at the helm. And look what happened there.
Same recipe. Same results. Will he deliver on his improvement plan or be
sacked? He should succeed now that he has his protéé Nickie Morris by his
side again (once she is confirmed in post) - as if anyone doubts that. Next up it may be Capita taking over from Amey.
It is more than likely that when Nickie Morris takes over as Deputy Director for Finance and
Property Amey will lose its Facilities and Building Management contract and Capita will be appointed.
She worked for them and with them and
they did wonders at Barnet.
Bexley is adopting everything that Barnet once had and recruiting someone from
there to head up Property in Bexley seems likely. The writing is on the wall.
Mr. Thorogood is sure to sweet talk the Leader and after reappointing
Capita for Benefits and buying Capita’s integra system, it must be a foregone conclusion.
For the second year running BexleyCo lost money. Amazing given the accounts show no expenditure.
Why does Bexley venture into projects it is useless at? And why pay for
expensive consultants who produce nothing? This could be the end of Graham Ward
glittering career. No loss I would say. Yet another business plan that has failed. Where were the
Council’s financial advisers?
BexleyCo has overtaken the white elephant that is the Thames Innovation Centre. It
runs on loans and it can only be a matter of time before they are
written off. Again the accounts reveal barely any income.
Housing remains a problem. The numbers coming to Bexley hasn’t reduced and
Bexley has been housing the rough sleepers in their own accommodation but now the
supply has dried up. Only 40 properties when in the past year it was 120.
When will the Council get it’s house together; please excuse the pun? BexleyCo
is two years old and lost £1·2m over those years and nothing but empty business
units to show for it. The Head of Housing is off and no Director is showing any
leadership. The only story is one of reduced budgets in the face of mounting pressures.
By 2022 when its first house might become available the losses will likely stand at £3 million.
The Accounts show an overspend on Housing of £1·6m. This was not as much as last
year but only due to circumstances.
In 2018/19 the Director of Finance made allowances for a Housing overspend by
allocating a larger budget and gave his reasons in February 2019. However a year
later the Director of Finance when preparing his 2020 budget and setting Council Tax
decided that there should be no extra money. An oversight or bad financial management?
In 2019/20 Temporary Accommodation got an extra £2·7m.
Looking at the notes in the accounts you would assume the 2020/21 budget would increase. It didn’t.
There were no overspends in February 2020, hence no additional cash provided yet
by 31st March the accounts show £1·6 million overspend. What happened in less
than two months? The Accountant who prepared the Statement of Accounts wrote
that financial forecasting and control needs improvement. So a recommendation
for the Director of Finance himself to watch the purse strings.
At the end of 2019 the accounts had a detailed breakdown of what went
wrong yet months later nothing was noted and the Director of Finance and
the Housing chiefs didn’t see a £1·6m overspend coming. Are we surprised
that the Head of Housing has just left? Things got too much for him.
It is pretty thankless in Housing and Finance have not
provided the budgets for the job to be done and when things inevitably go wrong, officers are blamed.
Be careful with what you say, whistleblowers are not protected here.