£8mn overspend in Labour-run Haringey, but no lessons learnt 24/09/03

William and Peter exposed Labour's failling on Social Services

Borough residents and reporters were shocked to hear at last Tuesday night's meeting of the Social Services Panel that Haringey Children's Services overspent their £21m budget by £5m last year.  Labour admitted that this year, spending was likely to be at least £3mn over budget as well.

William MacDougall, Deputy Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives, commented: "No-one begrudges the spending of money on vulnerable children; this expenditure may well have been necessary to deal with the severe problems in this crucial service.  But the scandal is that even after the Victoria Climbie tragedy, management controls should be so poor in Haringey that they really have no idea how to forecast spending."

MacDougall and Conservative GLA candidate Peter Forrest were the two Haringey Councillors who kept the council focused on the case which they were trying to hide under the carpet, uncovering in the subsequent enquiry large scale waste, inefficiency and neglect throughout the Social Services
department.

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