A report from the Electoral Commission states:
Study shows ‘one-party councils’ could be wasting £2.6bn a year in lost procurement savings
University of Cambridge research analyses 132,000 public procurement contracts between 2009 and 2013 to identify ‘red flags’ for corruption
One-party councils have on average 50% higher ‘risk of corruption’ than politically competitive councils
First report to use ‘Big Data’ to look at the financial dangers of single-party authorities
Click to access THE%20COST%20OF%20ONE-PARTY%20COUNCILS.pdf
The lead researcher reports:
“Fazekas said: “The persistence of uncontested seats and one-party dominated councils at the local level is a cause for concern across England in terms of quality of public services, value for money, and government responsiveness to citizen needs. One particular high-risk area is the integrity of government contracting when controls of corruption are weak.
“In modern democracies, one of the main pillars of good government and control of corruption is elections and electoral accountability. The change of political leadership or the risk of such change is expected to discipline holders of political power to use it for the public good rather than their own private benefit.”
And ERS chief executive, Katie Ghose, said: “It’s not true of all one-party councils, but it’s bound to be true of some – and this new research suggests that lack of scrutiny could be costing us dear.
“The fact that taxpayers in England could be losing out on £2.6bn a year in potential savings is a damning indictment of an electoral system that gives huge artificial majorities to parties and undermines scrutiny. This kind of waste would be unjustifiable at the best of times, let alone during a period of austerity.
“The risk of corruption at the local level should set off alarm bells in Whitehall. The public are getting a poor deal through our voting system.”
Josiah Mortimer, communications officer at the ERS, said that a fairer and more proportional electoral system – “such as the one used in Scotland for local elections” – would make one-party councils “a thing of the past”.
The problem is, of course, that one-party councils keep much secret because they are afraid that if we knew what is really going on, they would lose power. Holding on to power (and the inherent or perceived or real risk of corruption is seemingly much more important than governing ethically.
We wonder how many majority party councillors prefer silence about corruption to whistleblowing – too many we suspect.
We also have to question the role of the police in council corruption issues – where often they seem to lack the desire, the will and/ or the resources to make investigations – perhaps wary of covering up their own inadequacies in this area and the disruption of cosy cross- interest relationships which keep the wheels of power oiled.
East Devon Watch 