Council's half a million pound IT overspend slated

At a meeting of last week’s budget panel, Cllr Asif Khan described the £478,000 overspend – attributed mainly to increased spending on agency staff – as “staggering”.

The net cost of the overspend to Watford Borough Council will be £286,800, with the remaining £191,200 to be charged to Three Rivers District Council as part of a shared service cost.

Watford Borough Council had already set aside nearly £900,000 for its IT budget for the coming year.

“It’s not on and I am deeply concerned about this whopping increase. Beleaguered tax payers don't need to continue to bear the costs for a poorly managed service,” said Cllr Khan.

“It’s simply staggering and complacent. Residents from Watford and Three Rivers will have to pick up the bill for this. For Watford residents this is equivalent to 3 per cent of their council tax.

“The Watford Lib Dem-run council has mismanaged the IT systems for a long time, including a period where they outsourced it to Capita. The latest figures just shows how bad it was.

“Staffing costs alone have rocketed because people are not staying and they have not got a structure in place.

“Three Rivers Council is also hesitant in paying this and want assurances from Watford that this won’t happen again.” 

Cllr Mark Watkin, the council’s portfolio holder for finance and IT, said: “Since we brought IT back in-house last year, we made a deliberate decision to invest in modernising IT across both councils and these additional costs have been clearly forecasted as part of this programme. 

“These costs simply reflect this transition and the councils’ journey towards a modern and stable IT service. 

“As part of our plans, these costs will reduce over the next year as a permanent staffing structure is established and recruited to.

“The council keeps its finances closely under review throughout the year, which means our budget is carefully monitored and the additional IT costs referred to were fully expected.”