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Report exposes blunders over new bus stops



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Published Date:
10 April 2008
Political editor
A catalogue of blunders led to £4.2m being wasted on a hi-tech bus scheme that was later scrapped, The News can reveal.
A hard-hitting council report has lifted the lid on the series of errors that killed off Portsmouth City Council's 'bus portals' project.

The scheme was designed to give passengers live timetable information about how buses were running – but it was plagued by expensive technical errors and the city council pulled the plug after it spiralled £2m over budget.

A probe into the fiasco by city council audit manager Lyn Graham has pointed the finger at council executives who left the high-profile project in the hands of a relatively junior project manager on £38,000 a year.

In a worrying echo of the George Semmens report, which looked into the council's failings in the early days of the Spinnaker Tower, the auditor's report reveals that senior council officers failed to closely monitor what the project manager was doing.

The report, due to go before councillors tomorrow, found that the council took on all the financial risk of the project, instead of sharing it with partners such as the bus companies.

Only 36 of the 56 bus shelters were put up, and the cost of each one doubled from £7,785 to £15,502.

The auditor also raises questions about whether there was 'at best favouritism or at worst corruption' involved in the council's decision to award a contract to a company which was in dire financial straits and later went bust.

Committee members who meet tomorrow to consider the findings have told The News they are considering taking strong action against councillors and officers.

The report will also go to the full council.

Committee member Councillor Malcolm Hey said the report was almost a carbon copy of the Spinnaker Tower fiasco.

He added: 'We were supposed to have learned lessons from that – now this has been a complete waste of money.

'It's the same thing all over again and strong action must be taken.'

His colleague Councillor Mike Park added: 'Just about every rule in the book appears to have been broken.

'All those processes and procedures were supposedly put in place as a result of Spinnaker Tower and the Semmens Report but clearly people are still going ahead and making their own decisions.'

In her report, Ms Graham said: 'It was easy for the project to go off at a tangent and for some of the original project concepts to be forgotten, as there was no independent project board to be accountable to.'


The full article contains 439 words and appears in NS-City newspaper.
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  • Last Updated: 10 April 2008 10:06 AM
  • Source: NS-City
  • Location: Portsmouth
 
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1

spyglass,

cheltenham 10/04/2008 11:39:21
interesting to see where our council tax goes. when a 'junior project manager' is on a salary of £38,000 per annum how much staff above him be getting paid?

in days gone by when wages were low as a sop staff received generous pension payments, now when wages are totally out of all proportion to the humdrum 'skills' required of local government employees they still recieve over generous pensions. the whole system of local government is in need of a drastic overhaul. mistake after mistake by the portsmouth city council prove this point.

of course nobody will actually take the blame, councillors will go through the motions but their attitude will be there but for the grace of god go i.
2

jimtom,

portsmouth 10/04/2008 12:27:19
not surprising really with PCC, they couldnt do a straight rd anywhere in this city without it being crooked somwhere. No doubt we all will have to pay for this and all the other mismanaged projects ie millenium er sorry spinnaker tower etc . Or will PCC see what plans pompey have for a new stadium and try and get PFc to pay over the odds. to cover PCc incompetence
3

Graham Wheatley,

Southsea 10/04/2008 12:38:41
We ALL have a chance to start making changes. NOTHING will change if you DON'T use your vote on May 1st. If you don't vote and nothing changes then you will have no cause to complain. USE IT !

As I have said in previous posts PCC are less concerned with whether something will actually work or not, so long as it looks nice on paper.

Consultants, rather than their own staff, are employed to assess projects. If (a big IF) it goes smoothly then we "have made the correct decision as we knew that the task was beyond our capabilities". If it goes belly-up then "we're very disappointed but I'm afraid there is very little we can do about it. It was an innovative project and we were right to take it on yadda yadda yadda...).

Previous reports have stated that "an" employee has been sacked. Presumably that is the junior at the bottom of the inverted pyramid? It should have been his line manager and the senior above them !!

May 1st is coming - USE YOUR VOTE. We need someone in control of the council who will make the necessary changes and keep a firm hand on the tiller throughout all levels within the Civic Offices.


4

Aus,

Covert Ops 10/04/2008 13:05:01
This scheme did not make sense from the very beginning, when there are more deserving priorities, which seem to have been sorted conveniently just before the elections. Under the leadership of Gerald Vernon Jackson and the Lib Dems the city's assets have been poorly maintained (District Auditors report). They voted to close the Pyramids and if you cut through the spin as highlighted by the respected journalist Mary Griffin, it was actually the Lib Dems and its buddies who decided not to give extra funding for the Fire Station by this council. Bus tokens, the close of the Southsea Show, Skate Park and the Pyramids. This council is totally inept and clearly shows it has no real long term strategies in place-just reactive decisions when they think they are going to lose votes.
I told these muppets from the very beginning that the city centre would never be sustainable at the proposed rentals with the extra 80-90 shops. I want the city to succeed, however, I have suggested that councillors do not get any money for 3 years-unfortunately that went down like a lead balloon. What we have here with this council is a wagon load of monkeys, who have gone into the banana business and dispense Palm Tree Justice.
5

Aus,

Lost and Found 10/04/2008 13:10:06
I have seen the Lib Dem leaflets going out and we have the likes of Cllrs Butler and Mason proudly holding up two huge black bags. Would I be correct in thinking that they have found the tax payers money that has been frittered away by our ruling elite on a scheme to tell you when the next bus is coming along!!! You just can not make it up.
6

xoxAnniexox,

Fareham 10/04/2008 14:15:35
What is the point in using your vote? All councillors are the same, they vow to "change the way things are run" but the minute they see sight of their ridiculous paycheck, that all goes out the window and their all the same!
7

Graham Wheatley,

Southsea 10/04/2008 14:45:06
If your elected representative fails to live up to their promises then it is up to you / me / us to hold them to account. unfortunately most people can't be bothered.

I do understand the exasperation that you probably feel. The number of people that do not vote is quite astounding - unless of course it is for their favourite in the Big Brother House, or on Pop Idol, or for Oliver and Nancy. If those people DID vote in local and national elections then they would most certainly make a difference.

It is NO GOOD complaining after the event, that x,y,z, wasn't what you wanted. If you don't vote then you have NO voice and (as far as PCC/National Government are concerned) NO opinion.

Actually, in some situations it is even worse. Just for example, consider the situation surrounding Southsea Town Council and PCC's attempts to have it dissolved - Cllr Les Stevens et al peddle the lie that "the majority of Southsea residents want it disbanded".

I've seen this 'fact' in untold publications from both the Civic Offices and from Lib-Dem Towers. The 'Fact' is that a trifling 21.07% of Southsea voters turned out. Of those, 54% voted against STC and 46% in favour of keeping it. That equates to a shade under 11.5% voting AGAINST STC. The 79% of people who did not give an opinion (by abstaining) have effectively had their votes hijacked by Cllr. Stevens' party. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has seen the situation for what it is and effectively told PCC to s*d off!


USE YOUR VOTE. If you don't, then someone else will!

8

digicom,

Portsmouth 10/04/2008 15:44:10
With regards to 'Spyglass' comment above. As a result of a recent FOI request. Pay levels are as follows:
Chief Executive PCC £142,000 p.a. (a rise of £10,000 p.a.since last year).
Director Level (next management level below, I believe there are 6) pay scale £96,000-£106,000 p.a.
60% of your Council Tax goes on pay and pensions for local government employees, this is why it has risen more than 100% in the last ten years when prices have risen less than 25%. Why are these pay scales out of control? Because we have incompetent politicians drawn from the ranks of the unemployed and unemployable who do not have the ability to impose control over these sub-mediocre bureaucrats!
It is a matter of record that local government attracts risk averse, time serving mediocrities, who would not last a day in a competitive environment.
It is proven by the fact that they cannot even project manage a simple bus shelter project!
It is your and my money these idiots are wasting.
What needs to be done?
Firstly reduce the levels of management in City Hall. Why do PCC need 8 levels of management when world class companies like BP and GE manage with 4?
Secondly, reduce pay scales drastically in line with performance (they will not leave because they are unemployable elsewhere).
Thirdly, sack the responsible Director and line managers all the way down to the project manager (accountability).
Fourthly, call in the police (the Chief Executive should do this immediately) to ascertain whether or not corruption is involved.
Fifthly, Let us also have some political accountability. This FIASCO has been perpetrated under the political authority of the Liberal Democrats. Our MP, Hancock, is a Lib dem and also a Councillor (why?). He should resign together with the Leader of the Council (Vernon Jackson) and the Councillor holding portfolio (Bentley). Let us not forget the recent above 5% rise in our council tax, which is about to be capped! Let us also not forget the reduction of the ce
9

digicom,

Portsmouth 10/04/2008 15:53:30
central government grant by 1% for incompetence and inefficiency.
Roger Ching said 'we are a learning organisation,' what have they learned. Nothing!
10

Pompey_BD,

10/04/2008 15:56:11
>'at best favouritism or at worst corruption'

Or maybe BOTH?

Virtually all politicians lie. The current lot are no better than the last lot and it's very likely they won't be any better than the next lot.

So, given this is the premise, what IS the point of voting?

When I find a politician I can 100% believe in and I support and believe in his policies to a very large degree, then I will vote.

Until they put a space on the page stating "NO CONFIDENCE IN ANY OF THE ABOVE" I will not vote for these idiots just because I have to to have my say. I have a right to have MY say because I pay MY taxes.

And as for the spoilt vote argument being one and the same as showing a lack of confidence in the candidates, this is - in my opinion - nonsense because a) I have NEVER heard the number of spoiled votes mentioned on the tally and b) I don't believe that every spoiled vote is shown to ANY of the candidates.

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