Durham councillors “in the dark” over Reform Doge plans
Concerns have been raised after the party pledged to set up a department of local government efficiency to audit the books after taking over control of Durham County Council in May.
Teams of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will visit and analyse the local authority to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”, Reform said. The unit is influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in the United States.
However, councillors on Monday questioned the department’s access to key council information and confidential records. Labour’s Rob Crute, councillor for Blackhall and Hesledens, said the Reform-led process must be fully transparent.
He told the council’s Corporate Overview Management Board: “I don’t think any of us should be shying from any kind of scrutiny, but I have had concerned members of the public coming to me about the use of their data. We don’t know what it is going to be used for or who is going to own it.
“We are completely in the dark about what this actually means, and it’s really confusing for members of the public.”
Discussions are underway with executives and officers about another upcoming external scrutiny process by the Local Government Association, which will review whether council operations are efficient, effective, and economically sound and public money is used wisely.
Yet, councillor Chris Lines warned the extra scrutiny would impact council resources. “The combination of the peer review challenge and the external audit work going on, it looks very extensive,” he said.
The Independent member for Sedgefield added: “Clearly the organisation is involved in those external processes and are bringing their own teams in to work with the council. But inevitably, that work will have an impact on Durham County Council resources and officers’ time. Do you have a sense of the cost impact on the council of an external process such as an audit?”
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Responding, council officer Christine Pearce said the authority can use existing governance arrangements throughout the process.
Cllr Crute added: “There’s a whole host of issues involved when bringing in an external organisation involved in scrutinising somewhere that is already scrutinised to the nth degree. It’s important we get sight of what it actually means and what the implications might be.
“We need to respond to those concerns and have a look at exactly what Doge is going to do and what the engagement might be from the authority.”