News / Council consultants’ bill revealed
CONSULTANTS employed by Shetland Islands Council to turn the authority into an efficient and effective organisation have cost a total of £300,000, according to figure revealed on Wednesday.
Chief executive Alistair Buchan said it had been essential to employ the 15 advisers to help speed through change in the authority, following criticism from local government watchdog The Accounts Commission in 2010.
Mr Buchan said the average cost of consultants was between £400 and £500 a day, but pointed out that 10 years ago the council was paying twice that amount.
Mr Buchan has been given a total budget of £1 million to implement an improvement plan for the Shetland Islands Council.
“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever this is excellent value for money. It is a small proportion of the budget that the council has allocated for change and improvement,” Mr Buchan said, speaking on BBC Radio Shetland.
“We are getting some of the best people in the country at the most competitive rates. I have absolutely no doubt it is essential to our improvement work.”
He pointed specifically to the £70,000 it had cost to implement changes in senior management, which will see 75 posts reduced to 38, saving an estimated £1 million.
There has also been a new committee structure introduced with a strict new protocol for meetings, which has not gone down well with some councillors who privately complain about it.
The main costs has been for the four consultants employed through the local government improvement service run by local authority umbrella group COSLA.
Brian Lawrie, Keith Yates, Nigel Stewart and former NHS Shetland chief executive Sandra Laurenson have cost a total of £170,427.
A team of accountants from The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, and PricewaterhouseCoopers cost £67,431.
Professor Peter McKiernan and Gary Bowman from Strathclyde Business School have cost £33,429 for the scenario planning exercise to plan Shetland’s future for the next 20 years.
COSLA’s job evaluation consortium charged £18,338 to help reorganise senior council posts.
And Radio Scotland DJ and journalist Tom Morton has been paid £6,975 for helping develop a communications strategy.
All the figures are until 31 July.
The expenditure has been criticised by local government union Unison. Branch chairman Brian Smith told Radio Shetland the council had to ask itself whether it was doing the right thing spending such large sums on outside consultants.
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