The Salford Star understands that, last week, consultants from Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) gave a presentation on budget savings to Salford Council's bewildered corporate management team...
"They weren't saying anything new just that cutting jobs, management and services saves money!" a Council source reveals "What are we paying our own senior officers like Jim Taylor, Ben Dolan and Sue Lightfoot for?"
Indeed, it was £150,000 a year City Director Jim Taylor who brought in the consultants at a cost of £78,000 to "support internal 'tranformational' work for a two month period... developing a number of business cases that will help the council in achieving its financial challenges over the next 3-5 years".
Salford Council has a history of throwing public money at obscenely expensive consultants, who then tell the Council how to save money. Last time such an exercise happened at the very start of the cuts in 2008, Salford Council paid KPMG £158,000 that we could prove, although the real figure was probably up to ten times more.
A secret document, leaked to the Salford Star at the time, revealed that KPMG's people were getting paid massive amounts per day, ranging from £850 for a `consultant', to £1,300 for a `principal consultant', to £1,900 for a `director/partner'.
Originally KPMG had demanded £1,469,369 for its full programme of cuts in a 58 page letter to Salford Council. The document listed a whole range of `pay per cut' incentives (see previous Salford Star article click here).
Meanwhile, Salford Council used Price Waterhouse Cooper consultants to work on trying to bin off its housing to Salix Homes, providing `external advice' as part of £1million costs leading up to the ballot (see here). £250,000 alone was spent on consultants providing a `stock options survey'. Salford Council also spent £356,000 on a range of consultants providing advice for the Pendleton PFI scheme...
...And who can forget Salford's `deprived community consultant', Chris Marsh, who was paid £650 a day to find jobs for Salford people at MediaCityUK? Marsh trousered £46,800 for twelve days work a month on a six month contract (see here).
...Or the Salford City Stadium consultant, former Council employee, Dave Tinker, paid £12,354.63 "in relation to support to the stadium and its tenants" (see here).
Only last month the Salford Star unveiled Salford Council's Fat Cat consultant, Barry Quirk of Publicola Ltd, paid £6,109 to advise on senior management `arrangements' (see here).
And, currently, Salford Council is fishing for an `Interpretation Design consultant' "to provide specialist advice and expertise with regards to the detailed design and construction of interpretive installations along the Bridgewater Canal", with a budget of £407,000.
It all really does beg the question of why Salford Council employs any senior officers at all!
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