OPPOSITION councillors are calling for a review of Basildon Council’s use of consultants after it emerged costs have soared to more than £2million a year.

The council annual spend on external staff grew by nearly a million over just two years from £1.32million in 2011/12 to £2.28million in 2013/14.

Consultants are external staff employed by councils on fixed-term contracts to carry out jobs officers are unable to do.

The huge increase has prompted Basildon’s Ukip group to demand a review – particularly as the increases came at a time when the authority is supposed to be axing about 200 jobs and making millions of pounds of savings.

Kerry Smith, Basildon Ukip group leader, said: “This is something we have to raise at the next full council meeting.

“There needs to be a review with a breakdown of what the spending has been on, why officers could not do it and what each cost was.”

Echo: UKip councillor Kerry Smith is campaigning for traffic calming measures in London Road, Vange.

Review: Kerry Smith

Mr Smith claimed officers at Basildon seemed to be running the council, as opposed to elected councillors.

He added: “The tail appears to be wagging the dog at the Basildon Centre and it’s time the council leader put them back on a lead.

“We should be looking at employing officers locally and training them. Local companies run apprenticeships, so why can’t the council?

“At the moment we have a situation where bushes and weeds are not being dealt with across the borough, but we’ve got extra spending on consultants.”

Tory council leader Phil Turner dismissed the criticism and said extra spending on consultants could save cash in the long run.

He added: “The term consultant can mean many things. In many cases, consultants are used to cover posts which are vacant and are not therefore an incremental cost to our tax payers.”

Echo: Phil Turner

Value: Phil Turner

“In other instances we buy in specialists to enhance the work of the council’s employees, such as highly skilled technical services.

“In these cases, it can often save the council money as there are no associated costs, such as National Insurance and pension contributions, or redundancy cost for short-term projects.

“This allows the council flexibility in its staffing structure to manage resource more efficiently and ensure we are at all times providing value for money to our residents.”

A council spokesman added: “These figures include shortterm specialist expertise to achieve key tasks, either directly or by backfilling for staff implementing major projects and can also refer to cover for hard-to-fill vacancies.

“Another example is computer systems which often require ongoing consultancy to implement upgrades and new releases.

“Improvements to property and any associated structural, design or other technical work may be termed consultancy, but actually relate to specialist contract work for services not performed directly by the council.

Echo: On the way out - the Basildon Centre will be demolished by 2014

External staff: The Basildon Centre

"The rise in 12/13 & 13/14 mainly related to regeneration and transformation projects, which are one off projects. The rise could also be accounted to investment to support the regeneration programme and supporting the delivery of the transformation Programme to implement lasting solutions in achieving the corporate efficiency requirements.

"The reduced level of consultancy costs to date in 2014/15 currently post a true reflection of expenditure incurred and reflect the progression of the regeneration and transformation programmes and reduced requirement at this stage of specialist knowledge."

Echo:


Who has been hired?

THIS week the council announced it took on a new interim regeneration project manager on a nine-month contract worth £87,480 through blue-chip recruitment consultants Veredus.

A council report on the decision said: “The council requires an experienced interim regeneration project manager, on a nine-month contract, to project manage a number of complex, high profile projects.”

*Last month the council took on Solace Enterprises for an undisclosed sum to head hunt someone for the currently vacant position of group manager of human resources.

A report said: “This position is critical to the transformation of the HR service, which needs to support the organisational change. It is much less likely an internal approach only will attract the best candidates.”

*Recruitment consultants were appointed to run a campaign to fill nine vacant positions in human resources and payroll.

A report said: “The recruitment to these posts could be run internally. However, there is limited capacity following the restructure processes and there is a need to complete this process at pace so the new service can be settled.”

*Peter Brett Associates is being paid £32,288 to carry out a planning viability study needed by the council to develop its local development plan for the borough for the next 20 years.

The firm could even be paid more under a clause in the contract.