Highland Council opposition leaders have reacted to news that the council still has more than £5m in overspend from last year, as it prepares to spend £1m on achieving savings through change.
SNP group leader councillor Maxine Smith said: “For years the SNP group has been scrutinising the agency spend and saying it is far too high and I am pleased to see that the chief executive Donna Manson is addressing this matter, which should have been sorted out years ago, when we first raised it. Had that been done, we may not currently have the £5million overspend.”
Conservative group leader councillor Andrew Jarvie said the administration had not done nearly enough to make sure last year’s savings were implemented.
He said: “Any effort to get the finances under control must be welcomed, but this seems to be coming a bit late in the day.
“A raft of decisions were taken without any consultation or thought about the consequences which has contributed hugely to this overspend.”
The opposition leaders were speaking as the council’s chief executive Donna Manson and budget leader Alister Mackinnon met budget holders this week to set out the need for tight budget controls to continue throughout the year.
In February, councillors agreed to a Change programme designed to make £37.456m savings over the next three years.
A Change Fund of £2.5m was set aside to help resource and deliver the programme.
At next week’s full council meeting councillors will be asked to approve the use of £1m of the fund to resource the necessary changes to deliver the savings. The remaining fund is now earmarked to cover risk.
Ms Smith said she supported the use of £1m from the Change fund to make change happen.
She said: “Any additional unnecessary spend must be stopped now and budget holders need to get a handle on the fact that they can only order what is needed, not just what they might want – the culture throughout the Highland Council needs to change and change now.”