Forum Topic

Time for the Council to open the books.

Today I received an e-mail from East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service informing me that as my company is a 'listed vendor' to them and that they have placed orders with us in excess of £500 (Yes, that is five hundred- not 500 thousand) between April and October this year.They will under the Central Government's "transparency agenda" be publising on their website details of their purchasing from us.I have no problem with this, although I did pause to think how much time is it taking and therefore cost?On reflection, I think it will be worthwhile as such an exercise will certainly make those looking to charge public funded bodies top dollar think again?So the question is now, how long until Ealing Council follow suit?I have a strong hunch that the figures will be most revealing.

Charles Gallichan ● 5787d5 Comments

I agree - time for transparency now for taxpayers to understand where the money has gone to.Will it happen ? I am a sceptic...

Niall Connolly ● 5786d

I agree that scepticism about the short-term availability of this information is in order. I am still waiting to see if the council will come up with the voting details of who voted for what on the carer parking permit issue. If Ealing council cannot manage to keep, let alone publish, councillor voting records for the full council meetings let alone the committee meetings what chance do we have of seeing something as "sensitive" as this information?

Eugene Wroblewsi ● 5785d

Charles,It is government, specifically Tory, policy that all councils publish details of all expenditure over £500 from 1st January.  I asked the following written question at the last council meeting:When will Ealing add its name to the list of 75 councils who are already publishing details of all external expenditure online over £500?Please confirm that this publication will take the form of comma delimited or Excel files than can easily be uploaded into a spreadsheet for further analysis.We are planning to join the list of councils that publish details of all external expenditure over £500 online in January 2011.  I can confirm that this publication will take the form of comma delimited or Excel files to easily allow further analysis. We are not planning on publishing details of spend any earlier than January as we want to ensure that the data provided is in line with publication guidelines issued at the end of September and there is time to produce sample reports to check that we are not infringing Data Protection requirements.

Phil Taylor ● 5784d

Phil,Thank you for this information. So I will take it that this means January 31, 2011.

Charles Gallichan ● 5784d

Charles,I think they are required to do it on 1st January.  That date will be the second anniversary of the council publishing detailed information about parking tickets. http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/transport_and_streets/parking/parking_tickets_and_fines/pcns_issued/index.htmlThat was something I insisted they did when I was in charge.  It is hard to stop now!

Phil Taylor ● 5784d