FINANCIAL APPRAISAL OF COUNTY COUNCIL FLAWED

THE FINANCIAL APPRAISAL of Sligo County Council is fundamentally flawed by virtue of the fact that the terms of reference issued to the consultants by Council management are restricted and inappropriate; Cllr Declan Bree claimed this week.

“The narrow and restricted terms of reference for the financial appraisal will leave the consultants with no solution to the County Council’s financial crisis other than to recommend a take over of the Borough Council and its finances.

“The so called financial appraisal is clearly designed to ensure a recommendation that Sligo Borough Council be dissolved as an independent local authority with its financial resources handed over to the County Council.

“Despite the fact that Sligo County Council has the worst financial record in the country and despite the fact that the County Council is the only Council in the state where the revenue deficit is consistently increasing year by year, there is no proposal in the terms of reference for the consultants to examine, review or assess the performance and competence of the management of the County Council. The consultants have been instructed to examine numerous avenues except the obvious one.” said Cllr Bree.

“Given the shambles of the County Council’s finances it is blatantly obvious why management would not want its competence and efficacy assessed.

“The narrow terms of reference and the restricted scope of the appraisal imposed by the County Manager makes a mockery of the entire exercise.

“Is it any wonder that the Council management imposed its own terms of reference and proceeded to engage consultants without consulting the elected members of the Council.

“The record will show that at a Council meeting on the 2nd of May when reference was made to the proposal to engage consultants, the elected members unanimously resolved that the Council be provided with a report on the proposals to hire consultants including a copy of the tender documents and the terms of reference. However when the Council held its monthly meeting on the 14th of May, the proposed terms of reference and tender documents were not made available and the elected Council had no input into the process.

“Sligo County Council, as a result of ongoing incompetence, mismanagement and erroneous decisions is today on the verge of bankruptcy while Sligo Borough Council’s finances are in a reasonably healthy state.

“The citizens of the Borough have now every reason to be concerned. To hand over the finances and resources of the Borough to Sligo County Council would prove disastrous for the future development of Sligo.” said Cllr Bree.