Letter: Surely a Contract Overspend Should Have Been Noticed Before it Reached £16m?

Published on: 10 Dec, 2023
Updated on: 10 Dec, 2023

From: Wayne Smith

In response to: Call for a Special Committee to Oversee Council’s Fraud Investigation Rejected and Confused Messages Over Police Role in GBC’s Fraud Investigation

In another telling part of Cllr White’s statement in the debate on GBC’s investigation into the overspend of a HRA contract and possible fraud  she said the council needed to put in place “processes to make sure it doesn’t happen again”.

I don’t know how many years it has been since GBC was formed but are we to seriously believe that they don’t even have basic departmental budgetary controls in place that allowed a £16 million overspend before questions were asked?

Judging by the communications on police involvement in the investigation, it appears that the dysfunctional Guildford Borough Council is being investigated by the dysfunctional Reigate & Banstead Borough Council!

Who selected it for this task? And to think we’re paying at least £350,000 for the investigation.

Editor’s note: Guildford Municipal Borough Council and Guildford Rural District Council merged in 1974 to form Guildford Borough Council.

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