Why Edinburgh Council will be delighted to spend £2.5 million a year of your money to fix its failings – John McLellan

I’m sure Edinburgh Council’s SNP-Labour administration is delighted with the outcome of the review of management culture it voted through last week.

No private company would tolerate performance like Edinburgh Council's (Picture: Neil Hanna)

Over £1m of public money has gone to lawyers to show current management is on top of things and while there is more to do, everything is basically under control if some more public money is thrown at it.

That is, another £2.5m a year of your money is needed to pay for changes which could have been instigated long ago and, with the correct approach, achieved at far less cost.

Maybe problems will always arise in large organisations like a council, but there are few in which the leadership can get away with presiding over the failure of internal management systems for many years which require major expenditure to rectify and will not significantly improve performance to the extent that the public will notice.

No private corporation would tolerate a management team which has had over five years to address serious residual problems, and which then tells the board it needs another £2.5m a year to do what it was already supposed to be doing.

Instead, it’s all sighs of relief and pats on the back, and a fair chance that all we’ll get for our money is more staff performing internal duties and producing McKinsey-meets-Clinton-Cards motivational messages for the council’s staff website.

Meanwhile, determined whistle-blowers will still find themselves threatened with being disciplined because the review did not find their claims credible.

Move on please, nothing to see here, but your £2.5m annual subscription is now due.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston

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