SLIGO COUNTY COUNCIL - A BASKET-CASE

IS IT ANY WONDER that Sligo County Council is now considered a basket-case, Cllr Declan Bree asked when speaking at the annual budget meeting of the Council this week.

“The draft Annual Budget which has been presented to us by the County Manager can only be described as yet another work of fantasy.” said Cllr Bree.

“It is very similar to the Budget presented to us last year, and the previous year, and the year before that – budgets that bear no resemblance to reality and budgets that have plunged this Council into spiralling debt.
 
“At budget meetings we as councillors are warned that if we include proposals for expenditure or income which the Manager believes is unattainable, that the Minister for the Environment will be advised and that the elected Council could leave itself open to being abolished.

“However year after year the County Manager produces Budgets which are clearly unattainable.  

“At the end of 2008 there was a deficit balance of €4.2 million.  After adopting the Managers budget in 2009 this Council ended up with a deficit €7.5 million.  When it adopted the Managers budget for 2010 the Council ended up with a deficit of almost €10 million; and according to the most recent information, the Managers budget which was adopted for 2011 will increase the deficit by another €2.8 million and bring the total revenue deficit up to €12.8 million.    

“These figures clearly confirm that the budgets which the County Manger presents to the elected council each year are absurd and unattainable. This does not happen in any other County Council in the country.  It’s as if the Management of this Council was living in a parallel universe  -  and it makes a mockery of the Budget exercise we as councillors participate in each year.” Cllr Bree said.
 
“In addition, in July 2010, the County Manager asked the members of the Council to authorise borrowing of €18 million by way of a term loan of €15 million and a temporary overdraft of €3 million.   We were told then that the main reasons for the loan and overdraft totaling €18 million was due to an accumulated deficit on the revenue account of €7.5 million and that there was expenditure of approx €10 million on capital related activity that awaited funding.

“However despite the fact that the Council borrowed the money to clear the €7.5 million deficit last year, we discovered this year that the deficit was not cleared.

“And it should also be noted that this year the County Manger recommended to the Council that the overdraft be increased from €3 million, then to €5 million, then to €7.5 million and then to the current €11million overdraft.    

“And now we have this draft Budget before us today, which can only be described as another work of fantasy and which will lead to further increased interest repayments and another huge deficit at the end of 2012.  

“Unfortunately the major political parties on this Council find this acceptable

“Is it any wonder that Sligo County Council is now considered a basket-case.  If any business in the private sector behaved in such a fashion it would have gone to the wall long ago.

“And the question we have to ask the County Manger is:  Why is Sligo County Council the only Council in the entire country where the revenue deficit is consistently increasing year by year?  

“There are 34 County and City Councils in the state, and there are 34 County and City Managers.     In this context I believe it is reasonable to ask the Sligo County Manager: Why is Sligo the only Council in the country where the revenue deficit is consistently increasing year by year?” said Cllr Bree