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Politics, politics, politics (so long and thanks for all the fish)

monkeybarry said:
Councilors should be paid roles.

It's an outdated system - local councils are in charge of huge budgets and works that are far too important for volunteers.

I doubt most people would be willing to pay the extra taxes to fund it in the short term. In the medium term those tax levies would be reduced by efficiency savings.
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The other problem is that those who tend to want that kind of role are left-leaning in general. One has to believe in the value of govt and it being the best place to source provision in order to take up that kind of role, in general. So it will always be stuffed with tact, spendy types.

Should really be farmed out to independent accountants.
 
scaramanga said:
The other problem is that those who tend to want that kind of role are left-leaning in general. One has to believe in the value of govt and it being the best place to source provision in order to take up that kind of role, in general. So it will always be stuffed with tact, spendy types.

Should really be farmed out to independent accountants.
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That's not true - local council election results disprove that.

Local councils do have staff. However, like MPs, the final decisions comes down to the elected officials, who lack the high level experience and don't have the political pressure/repercussions when they get it massively wrong.
So it either needs changing in structure or a scrutiny committee (like local level civil servants) needs to sign off. (Against defined criteria to avoid bias)
 
monkeybarry said:
That's not true - local council election results disprove that.

Local councils do have staff. However, like MPs, the final decisions comes down to the elected officials, who lack the high level experience and don't have the political pressure/repercussions when they get it massively wrong.
So it either needs changing in structure or a scrutiny committee (like local level civil servants) needs to sign off. (Against defined criteria to avoid bias)
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Maybe not the elected roles but they have staff that are all the type that would want to work for a local council.

I don't think a scrutiny committee would be strong enough against bias - I'd rather expenditure had to be justified to a professional, external auditor.
 
scaramanga said:
Maybe not the elected roles but they have staff that are all the type that would want to work for a local council.

I don't think a scrutiny committee would be strong enough against bias - I'd rather expenditure had to be justified to a professional, external auditor.
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I don't know how it works at local level, but centrally the yearly audit is by one of the big boys, so you have to have the appropriate processes in place as part of the operating model (all pretty standard stuff).
I think local govt has accounts audited by local firms - but I've heard stories of them being nothing more than box tickers
 
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