In article , David J Clarke
writes
|
| However, do you know what Audit Department do and how the two are tied
| together? (I feel sure you will know by your suitably apt comment about
| Councillors)

No. You have now lost me on this one. Please enlighten me.

Your Local Council must deliver the best service for you.

Fine if they were allowed to get on with it, but Councillors set the
guide lines, set the rules, dictate what has or what has not got to be
done. 'THEY' crack the whip, might not have any idea what the hell they
are talking about, but will go on a jolly at Rate Payer's (or what ever
it is called this week) and dream up all sorts of unworkable ideas. Mini
Roundabouts. Pedestrianisation. 'Green' Topics such as re-cycling ideas
etc etc etc etc and so on and so on :-((

All in the interest of the Council Tax Payers (or what ever they are
called this week) and 'supposed' to be for the benefit of said people.

OK?

Audit are supposed to monitor who does what and that it is cost
effective. For example. If one of their employees is sitting on a
computer all day surfing the net and replying to the various newsgroups
which are irrelevant and have no connection to the Council Business,
then he is not cost effective to the Council and is not required.

Therefore, if you write to the Council with a complaint, such as our
poster with the complaint about a Council tree, then as soon as the
letter hits the desk of the relevant department, they 'MUST' swing into
action and either action it or at least reply to it within a certain
time.

Let me give you a classic example. When you move or re mortgage your
house for example and your solicitor sends in a search, that MUST, by
Audits guidelines, be turned around and out within 10 days. We are not
talking in 'some' part of the country, we are talking Countrywide. Now
if you are biting your nails and ring your Solicitor up and ask whet the
delay is, he will answer 'Waiting for the search to come back'. The fact
that it is STILL sitting on his desk doesn't matter to him, but
unbeknown to him, all searches are logged in and logged out and Audit
keep an account of it.

I was surfing the web only yesterday and I fell across a sight which
gives the results of the targets set and how the council meets them and
what their score is. Fascinating sight, cannot remember where it was:-((

Getting back to your question, Audit are 'your' eyes on the efficiency
of the Council. I have warned Council Employees that their time/effort
is being monitored, but regret I wasn't believed:-((

Hope that helps :-))

Mike

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It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers
to ask you the questions.