Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
#1
£2m spent on consultants in 3 years, including £700k on "expert advice".
What do these useless people need expert advice in, they are there to empty bins and keep street lights on.
I'm starting a petition that we all withold our council tax and business rates until this scandalous waste of money ends. Others write on here about cuts to the disabled, now you know where your money is going.
Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,829
#2
It almost seems to be fashionable nowdays for big companys,councils etc to use these Consultants.I suppose in some cases they might be nessesary,but quite often not.Often they charge big money for just stating the obvious.I can remember many years ago reading an article about a council somewhere that used a firm of consultants to carry out a study of traffic and some particular road.One of the things they studied was the HGV traffic and noted apart from other stupid things was,"The HGV traffic was considerably slower going uphill than when travelling downhill".A child could have done a better job of the study.I suppose its a good way of getting rid of too much cash.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#3
I must agree with all that has been wrote about the DDC over this one going back many years starting with the St James street plan and right up till now and they are still doing it,but having done it,they never act on what has been said by the Consultants not all blame can be put down to the DDC,they have been let down companys etc pulling out more in the later years that when the St James street plans were in place,but they must put up their hands to alot of funding being wasted on Consultants,but it was also going on when the reds held the power at the DDC.Again some must also be put down to our what I call the planning dept from hell of the DDC. Again it is my views and my views only ,and I do not know what goes on behind closed doors,so I could be very wrong. But I could also be very right.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#4
Last week, we took some friends to a chain restaurant and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.
It seemed a little strange.
When his colleague brought our water and cutlery, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.
Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, 'Why the spoon?'
'Well,' he explained, 'head office hired consultants to revamp all of our processes.
After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil.
It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.
If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.'
As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it with his spare. 'I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now.' I was impressed.
Then I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly.
Looking around, I saw that all of the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter,
'Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string hanging there?'
'Oh, certainly!' Then he lowered his voice.
'Not everyone is so observant.
That consulting firm I mentioned also learned that we can save time in the loo.
By tying this string to the end of our you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the toilet by 76.39%.
I asked quietly, 'After you get it out, how do you put it back?'
'Well,' he whispered, 'I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon.'
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#5
difficult to comment upon until we know what the consultations were about.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#6
Another avenue whereby Councils use the services of consultants is in direct response to cost-cutting and budget expediency. To save money it is the Council Officers with knowledge and experience that are let go, the boast is often heard that savings are being made from the back-office as well as the front line. These same people find their way back into doing their old jobs by becoming Limited Company Consultants.
They get their redundancy payouts and receive their pensions and a higher wage and afford the Council the line that jobs have gone and money is being saved.
Such wrinkles are well known, the playing-off of current expenditure against capital expenditure.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#7
#4
Peter, you are a caution.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#8
When I worked for Barclays Capital, we often used consultants as project managers for IT implementations. They all frequently used the acronyms OFINTOT or OSINTOT. I'm sure someone here knows what they mean.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 1694- Registered: 24 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,087
#9
A farmer minding his own business watching over his sheep.
Big range rover pulls up and the driver says to the farmer "hey, if I'll tell you how many sheep you have in that field if you then let me have one"
The farmer paused for a minute, then agreed.
The chap then got back in his car for a few minutes, connected to his IT feeds and calculators and made his assessment.
After a couple of minutes he popped back out of the car and told the farmer, 'you have 127 sheep in that field'
Moderately impressed, the farmer told the chap he could go and get one.
As the chap gets back to his car the farmer says to him "here, if I can tell you what you do for a living, will you give me a sheep?"
The chap agreed and the farmer said "you're a consultant"
"how did you know that?" says the chap
"Well you turn up uninvited and demand a nice fat fee to tell me something I already know and know nothing about my business"
The chap thinks for a second and then says "What do you mean, I know nothing about your business?"
"Aw, just give me my dog back and piss orf"
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#10
Are you back, Neil, or posting from Egypt?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#11
Neither did I Peter, but I found someone who did.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
#12
David, why do you have to use such insulting language in your postings?
DDC staff are not useless, they have to work within guidelines & regulations that are set by others-supposedly to protect you, the council tax payer.
If you had read my posting in another thread about funding & independent validation [consultants] you might partly understand why much of the spend is required.
I will explain it to you in detail when you visit.
Watty
Guest 1694- Registered: 24 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,087
#13
I am back. Arrived last night.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#14
I had to look up OSINTOT, good one Peter and so true
http://www.netlingo.com/word/osintot.php-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
#15
Paul, I stand by my assertion that the staff that commissioned the consultants to the tune of £2m must indeed be useless if judged on what they've achieved.
I read from time to time that councils need to make cuts, other posters complain about how these cuts affect them, then I read that £2m of taxpayer's money has been chucked down the drain. Paul, if you think that £150k spent on firework advice is money well spent I despair.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#16
David I am not defending DDC in any way as that does seem a lot of money with nothing to show for it but would you build a house without the help of an architect or surveyor.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#17
david
of all your wild lunging attacks, post 1 here has to be your most crass, insulting an entire workforce without having any idea what they do. i don't know what you get out of it but it does absolutely nothing to improve the morale of people who are down in numbers and up in work.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
#18
I know many DDC (and DTC) staff and can attest that they are most assuredly NOT useless. In fact, quite the contrary - most of them are extremely conscientious and caring people. David, you might want to realise that they have to work in extremely regimented circumstances, many of them having had their pay frozen for three years or longer and many of them working in great fear of redundancy. This is not a set of circumstances that I suspect many would want to swap for their own.
That said, I do believe there to be a culture of passing the buck within many councils and that hiring consultants is the easy option of paving the way when difficult decisions lie ahead, it being easier to fall back on a report that points to a particular direction than it is to accept the responsibility oneself. I wish that Councils would look at the cost of these consultants and realise that, in a time of financial hardship, it would be far more in the public interest to save the expense of commissioning some half-baked consultants to produce a report that usually states the bloody obvious and actually use the far cheaper option of common sense. Money is simply too tight to fritter away in this fashion.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
#19
Andy, your first paragraph sums up the whole UK workforce which is why the wasting of £2m is nothing short of criminal.
Howard don't be ridiculous I'm not insulting an entire workforce, its the ones that sanctioned the £2m that are useless.
Howard straight question;
Do you think its money well spent?
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#20
Put in a far better way then I could do and I am in agreement with what Mr Cooper is saying,apart from the planning dept where I do think that some not all officers act to much on their own,but again that is because they are allowed to.Again just in my way of thinking and what I see and companys that have walked away from Dover because of the planning dept.