Whistleblowers fear £760m equal pay liability bill could be hugely overstated, as IT problems leave finances in disarray
There is growing unease that large budget cuts, asset sales and a 10% council tax increase have been made too hastily.There is growing unease that large budget cuts, asset sales and a 10% council tax increase have been made too hastily.city council, which led it to effectively declare bankruptcy and make a swathe of drastic budget cuts, could be hugely overstated, councillors, researchers and whistleblowers have said.
“And this figure is ruining this city. We’re going to see the real basic infrastructure of the city, things like libraries, closed and sold off, and when they’re gone they can’t be replicated. I’m seeing the heart ripped out of my city.”the biggest local authority budget cuts in history last month External auditors are in the process of verifying the equal pay figure, but have yet to report back on their findings. Union sources, who are fighting for equal pay for female council employees, also said they had no idea where the £760m liability figure had come from or how it had been calculated. It could be underestimated or overestimated, they said.
Brackley said his research suggested service cuts and asset sales were being made too quickly, and with little guarantee they would provide good value for money in the long run. Tilsley said: “It is so bad that if I was to ask our director of finance: ‘How much money have we got in the bank today?’ nobody would be able to tell me. We’ve lost complete control over the financial management.”
“There was no financial reporting. How did we know what was in the budgets, what cash had been collected, what cash had been spent? We couldn’t,” the whistleblower said.
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