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I want to focus on a couple of really annoying issues this month. The first is petty FoI requests about every issue under the sun. Does anyone really care if the chief executive of a district council claimed £120 expenses on a ‘town twinning trip'? Individuals and the media need to stop wasting council time on these sorts of questions. On the back of these inquiries, the media ends up writing about things which don't affect most people's lives. Stories such as chief executives earning £200,000 for running billion pound organisations are distorted and unbalanced. When you look at similar-sized private sector businesses, chief executive packages easily reach £500,000-plus, heading comfortably towards the £1m mark. So, frankly, the media should get real, see the bigger picture and raise issues that really matter. The second rant I want to have is about councils having to call in the big four accountancy firms to tell them whether or not they applied their treasury-management policies correctly during the Icelandic banking saga. If you know your business, you should easily be able to find this out and write a report which sets out if you did apply your own policies. why you made these decisions over the last year and if, with the great benefit of hindsight, you got it right? The partners of the big four can't believe their luck. I live in Hillingdon, and I don't want my London borough to spend a penny investigating the reason it had £20m in Iceland. And another thing... Richard Ennis is executive director for corporate resources at Ealing LBC

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FINANCE

Money Matters

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