Aberdeen City Council statement on the Best Value Audit Improvement Plan
18/07/08
Aberdeen City Council has moved to clarify the overall budget savings figure which has been reported widely in the media.
The total savings that need to be made in this financial year by the city council amount to £49.7million.
The figure was presented in a Best Value Audit Improvement Plan report which was considered today by the all-party urgent business committee.
Committee members unanimously agreed a raft of measures to ensure the council balances its budget.
The figure of £49.7 million was explained in detail in the report, which was drawn up by the City Chamberlain following a recent meeting with the External Finance Support Group. The group is advising the city council on how best to achieve the required savings.
The sum comprises:
- the council-approved budget savings which were agreed at the budget meeting in February;
- the savings from the Transformation programmes for children’s, adults’ and environmental services which were approved by the city council last October;
- other efficiency savings proposed by council officers across all services and in included in the base budget.
Aberdeen City Council has always been transparent about the total savings, which were detailed in the budget papers.
This is standard practice and no detail about our required savings has ever been hidden. The total level of savings needed was included in the reports to the February budget meeting and in the budget booklet published subsequently.
The city council is working collectively to meet the challenge of delivering all of these budget savings, with help from chief executives, finance directors and senior councillors from other local authorities.
The Best Value Audit Improvement Plan which is receiving media coverage today is part of a risk-assessment exercise. The city council has a duty to undertake such an exercise, which has to take account of all possible scenarios. It is an appropriate approach to managing the budget, using standard risk-management techniques.
Each individual budget saving has been assessed by the city council using a “traffic light” system of red, amber and green, in line with the progress being made on achieving the required savings. The Best Value Audit Improvement Plan was written in the context of 50% of the amber category budget savings being achieved.
It is vital to note that this is a starting point for the purposes of the risk-assessment. It is not an indication that only 50% will in fact be achieved. Intensive work is continuing to turn “amber” and “red” category savings into “green”.
It is also important to understand that the report did not include the very latest savings forecasts from Corporate Directors.
The Corporate Management Team is closely scrutinising progress on budget savings on a daily basis. Progress is also scrutinised by the Budget Monitoring Board, which next meets on August 1.
If you have any queries regarding this, or any other news story, please contact Aberdeen City Council on: 01224 522000.
