Doge arrives in West Northants
Reform UK's Zia Yusuf and has team started the Doge process on Friday
By Sarah Ward
Reform’s UK national team has arrived in West Northants to start its audit of spending.
Zia Yusuf, who is in charge of Doge (Department of Government efficiency) at Reform UK, turned up with some of his team to meet senior officers on Friday.
The audit was one of the few promises Farage’s party made in the campaigning before the May election and West Northants will be the second council in the country (after Kent County Council) to face the audit. It is unclear when North Northants process will start, but some national Reform UK faces are expected at the council tomorrow, possibly at the first executive meeting.
The Doge process has been controversial as local authorities already carry out their own annual audits and government finances should be transparent. However in Northants and other local authorities there have been concerns about transparency over the years. Leader of the Labour group Sally Keeble has called the Doge audit an ‘American-style hit squad’ and said the financial examination has ‘more to do with Nigel Farage’s wrecking-ball tendencies than improving the lives of people in West Northamptonshire.’
A news release sent out by the national office yesterday said:
“Following their initial meeting, the Doge team will get to work identifying waste and inefficiencies within the council budget. They will then issue a report to the council leadership in due course who will take action in the best interests of local residents.
“The team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will visit and analyse every one of the 12 Reform-controlled councils, auditing local government spending to increase transparency and ensure taxpayer money is spent solely on activity that benefits residents.
“The team of highly skilled analysts are working pro-bono, meaning the work will come at no cost to local taxpayers.
Head of Reform UK Doge Zia Yusuf said:
“For too long British taxpayers have watched their money vanish into a black hole. Their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed and their local services keep getting cut. Reform won a historic victory in West Northamptonshire and around the country on a mandate to change this.
“As promised, we have created a UK D.O.G.E to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Our team will use cutting edge technology and deliver real value for voters.”
West Northamptonshire Council Leader Councillor Mark Arnull said:
“We fully welcome the assistance Zia and his team have offered to provide to help us uncover waste across council spending.
“Whilst we continue our own work to streamline council finances, the cutting-edge expertise that the DOGE team are providing free of charge will make it that much easier to identify waste and free up funds which we can redirect towards frontline public services like SEND provision, adult social care and filling potholes.”
The party says it is ‘fully committed to complying with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018’. A formal data sharing agreement will be drawn up between the authority and the Doge audit team.
They say the agreement limits the purposes for which data can be used, ensures that data is accessed only where necessary, and requires that all data is stored securely and handled in accordance with the same standards applied within the council. They insist ‘where possible’ pseudonymisation will be used, meaning personal identifiers are replaced with coded references so that individuals cannot be directly identified.
According to Reform UK, every individual involved in the audit has signed a binding confidentiality agreement and will be subject to the above mentioned data sharing agreements. They say this ‘explicitly prohibits any use of the data for personal or commercial gain.’
Cllr Sally Keeble has submitted a Freedom of Information request to WNC asking for full disclosure of communications between the council and Reform officials about the DOGE activities.
She said:
“Local government is accountable to local people,not the vagaries of national political figures who have no responsibility for our local services.
“If the Reform administration wants to appoint Doge, they should put the organisation through a transparent procurement process with safeguards in place for people’s personal data.”
NN Journal has attempted to contact WNC leader Mark Arnull about the audit, however he has not responded. Due to the council’s media team’s long standing refusal to answer same day questions from ourselves, we have not contacted WNC directly for more information.
The chart below shows the response time WNC's media team says is applicable to enquiries from NN Journal.
Are the media team elected officials?
If not why are they dictating policy?
Maybe if any councillors (especially Reform) read this they can explain.
They could examine the business case for investing 12million in an unwanted crematorium. My FOI request to see it is being interminably reviewed.