Tories continue to undermine Scrutiny

11.26.00pm GMT Tue 9th Jan 2007

The scrutiny investigation into the Libraries and Information Centres project was clearly biased.

The scrutiny investigation into the Libraries and Information Centres project was clearly biased.

The panel membership comprised two Tory councillors who have sought to make political points rather than assess the facts objectively and report accordingly.

They claim that there was significant staff discontent with the implementation process when in fact out of 300 members only 35 expressed any reservations at all about the whole scheme.

No member of staff or the unions felt it necessary to contact the Cabinet Member about their alleged concerns a clear indication that any concerns they had, had been satisfactorily dealt with during the process. This scrutiny only came about because a former employee wrote to raise concerns months after the alleged concerns emerged.

They assert that 'there was no leadership from cabinet'. Cabinet's role is to twofold, one to oppose the policy and determine it on the basis of relevant information sought from and supplied by officers and second to oversee the implementation - addressing any major concerns or problems which emerge.

We determined the policy after considerable discussion and probing about the pros and cons. We also discussed in detail and agreed the implementation plan devised by officers. At no stage after that did officers (or any members of staff or the unions) flag up any major issues about the proposal, the implementation or its management.

I was questioned by the two Tory members early on in the process, but I was not asked to comment on the report before it was finalised.

This sort of approach seriously undermines the concept of scrutiny as being politically neutral. This is exacerbated when the current cabinet member chooses to draw erroneous conclusions from the report.