Thursday, December 14, 2017

Oakham Town Council Takes Back Control of Its Spending,

At Wednesday evenings council meeting the council took back control of its spending,

This did not please the Chairman Cllr Michael Haley or the Clerk.

After members had voted to reverse changes to our financial regulations withdrawing
what seemed at times to be full delegated powers for the clerk to spend up to £5000
on anything without it needing council approval.

The council has reverted to permitting the clerk to spend up to £2000 in an emergency
after consulting with at least two members.

This is to protect the money councillors are responsible for and the Clerk in future.

After the decision was made councillor Michael Haley permitted extended debate
mainly because he was not happy with the councils resolution and he did his utmost
to attempt to undermine the councils decisions. A video of the meeting will be published
soon. Cllr Haley failed to show any respect to most members throughout the meeting.

At the same meeting I raised once again why the office was not using the expensive
accounting software to its full extent. We paid thousand for it and reports are then
produce manually not using the software. during the meeting the clerk said she
did not use the software reports because they might be to complicated for members
to understand.
So once again we have wasted money as nothing has changed when it comes to presenting
the accounts for council.

The clerk received training to use the software we purchased I do not understand why
it is not being used  properly. If any member had difficulty understanding reports surely
a trained Clerk could explain them.