At this week’s meeting of Barnet Council’s Financial Performance and Contracts Management Committee (1 Feb), Conservative Councillors voted against a proposal by Labour to publish detailed financial information on the costs and savings of services that are being brought back in-house from the disastrous Capita contracts.
Barnet Council have already agreed to bring procurement, regulatory services, regeneration and highways services back in house as part of the year 6 review of the Capita contract, which is taking place 8 years into the contract.
The Council’s own data shows that they have spent £225 million more on the Capita contracts then the original contract price, but the Conservatives claim the contracts have saved money.
East Finchley Labour Councillor Arjun Mittra tabled an amendment to the recommendations to call for immediate publication of the detailed costs and savings that had been identified.
Cllr Mittra said:
“The public have a right to know whether the Conservative’s claim that the Capita contracts have saved money overall is true or not before they cast their votes in the local elections in May. The Conservatives have made this claim for years, but it has never been proven and has never been demonstrated. Barnet has a lackadaisical attitude and record on transparency with these secretive contracts. It is time the public were allowed to see the truth.”
Leader of the Barnet Labour Group, Cllr Barry Rawlings added:
“The Council now admits that the full information on the cost of Capita will probably not be made available to the public before the election. This is unacceptable as the public have a right to know whether their money is being spent wisely and prudently. Capita know that these services are coming back in house – there isn’t a negotiating position that needs to be kept secret now. There is no real reason why this information should still be kept secret.”
Ends.
Notes:
- For the latest Capita review report see (Agenda Item 7): https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=693&MId=10802
- See below table with the Council’s data on spend to date for the Capita contracts (table compiled by Barnet Blogger, Mr Reasonable): http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2022/01/2022-and-this-year-there-are-local.html
