County Counsellors Expenses

kollegeknight

Am just flicking through the expenses on the county council website. Unreal the courses some of them go on.
Can somebody explain how martin conway can spend nearly 400e more on mobile phone bills than the mayor of clare?
There is a crowd that have missed up to 5 meetings and still claim up to 30k.

I thinks its a pure disgrace when you see the state of our roads and the waste in these offices.

http://www.clarecoco.ie/your-council/publications/councillors-expenses-and-meetings-attended-in-2010-5926.pdf

CiaranMT

My question is why in the hell are the expenses so generous?

mrsoundie

One of my favorites

Bill Chambers attended the conference Reforming the Law on Personal Debt
and got for it €452.57 for it.

What did exactly happen their that he got €452.57 did they all chip in to cancel someones personal debt?

I would love to know. :mad:

Lady Chatterton

Link to Clare Champion article on councillor's expenses

http://www.clarechampion.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5065:counting-the-costs&catid=41:politics&Itemid=60

breedie

I think one of the main problems is that they never seem to be asked to account for why they attended this particular junket/conference. Perhaps if they all had to publicly outline exactly how the people of Clare benefit directly from their attendance they might be a little less inclined to hop on every bandwagon.

For instance, if a counsellor claimed 5.000 in expenses for attending these things then they should be able to demonstrate exactly how they have added 5,000 to their value as a councellor.

Am I right in thinking that members of the public are entitled to attend Council meetings? It might be an idea to go along and ask them directly???

finbarrk

Ah ye are all jumping on the bandwagon now. Not one of ye would get 300 votes if ye went for it. Actually would it be 150 maybe for the OP?

Lady Chatterton

finbarrk wrote: »

Ah ye are all jumping on the bandwagon now. Not one of ye would get 300 votes if ye went for it. Actually would it be 150 maybe for the OP?

Don't understand the point you're trying to make?

kollegeknight

finbarrk wrote: »

Ah ye are all jumping on the bandwagon now. Not one of ye would get 300 votes if ye went for it. Actually would it be 150 maybe for the OP?

Maybe 100 votes for me.
It's not a band wagon. read the expenses they claimed and figure how many are value for money.
I do not think clare co co are value for money and i especially do not believe the county counsellors are value for money.

Kasabian

finbarrk wrote: »

Ah ye are all jumping on the bandwagon now. Not one of ye would get 300 votes if ye went for it. Actually would it be 150 maybe for the OP?

Wonderful contribution there.:rolleyes:

CiaranMT

finbarrk wrote: »

Ah ye are all jumping on the bandwagon now. Not one of ye would get 300 votes if ye went for it. Actually would it be 150 maybe for the OP?

Fair point, well made. :pac:

5h4mr0(k

The amount of the expenses shouldn't be an issue. The issue is that they seem to have carte blanc to spend money on what they see fit without getting prior approval from anyone.

Surely the IT department at CCC should approve any purchase of computer hardware the councillors need BEFORE it is bought.
Couldn't they get some sort of group rate for mobile phones?
Etc. Etc.

Lady Chatterton

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

The amount of the expenses shouldn't be an issue. The issue is that they seem to have carte blanc to spend money on what they see fit without getting prior approval from anyone.

Surely the IT department at CCC should approve any purchase of computer hardware the councillors need BEFORE it is bought.
Couldn't they get some sort of group rate for mobile phones?
Etc. Etc.

I think you make an excellent point 5h4mr0(k. In the company I work in, our purchasing department have negotiated with suppliers so that the company get the best deals. Everyone uses the same type of mobile phone, laptop, etc. And when it comes to business trips the company use certain hotel chains because they get very competitive room rates. If the town councils and county council did the same they could make significant savings. (Any maybe they could even afford to fix a few potholes then )

CptSternn

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

Surely the IT department at CCC should approve any purchase of computer hardware the councillors need BEFORE it is bought.
Couldn't they get some sort of group rate for mobile phones?
Etc. Etc.

You think thats bad, I just finished a contract working in Dublin for a department of the government. I won't say which, as you will know who I am on about and I don't want to start any issues here, but...

I managed the mail server farms. I ran a large project where we upgraded all the mail servers from an old VMs system to all new Exchange 2010. The hardest part of the migration?

The mobile phones.

Why?

All of the department, a couple hundred, had all the same mobile phones. They were all Windows phones and linked right up without issue. All except three phones - Blackberrys. Why did we have three Blackberries? One was for a minister, the other were for his two aides. Because of the two blackberries they had we had to setup a RIM server and then link it into the new server farms. The project took six months, two of which we had to work on getting those three bb phones working. We had to call in RIM specialists and get a separate server plus bring in an employee whose only job it was to mind that server.

True story. The person is obviously FF, but I'm not saying who or which department.

At the end of the day we spent months and the government paid tens of thousands so a minister and his two staff could use the blackberry devices because they didn't like the Windows phones, not that they every tried them.

Whats even more sad - I spoke with a few others in the IT department there that bounce around in other departments and found the same is happening in other places as well - ministers that want to use iphones or blackberries costing the taxpayers lots so they can have the phone of their choice.

Lady Chatterton

CptSternn wrote: »

You think thats bad, I just finished a contract working in Dublin for a department of the government. I won't say which, as you will know who I am on about and I don't want to start any issues here, but...

I managed the mail server farms. I ran a large project where we upgraded all the mail servers from an old VMs system to all new Exchange 2010. The hardest part of the migration?

The mobile phones.

Why?

All of the department, a couple hundred, had all the same mobile phones. They were all Windows phones and linked right up without issue. All except three phones - Blackberrys. Why did we have three Blackberries? One was for a minister, the other were for his two aides. Because of the two blackberries they had we had to setup a RIM server and then link it into the new server farms. The project took six months, two of which we had to work on getting those three bb phones working. We had to call in RIM specialists and get a separate server plus bring in an employee whose only job it was to mind that server.

True story. The person is obviously FF, but I'm not saying who or which department.

At the end of the day we spent months and the government paid tens of thousands so a minister and his two staff could use the blackberry devices because they didn't like the Windows phones, not that they every tried them.

Whats even more sad - I spoke with a few others in the IT department there that bounce around in other departments and found the same is happening in other places as well - ministers that want to use iphones or blackberries costing the taxpayers lots so they can have the phone of their choice.

I'm so depressed after reading your post. That sh1te would not be tolerated in the company I work for. You have to take the laptop or phone you're given - end off. The only exception to this is where an individual needs adaptive technology. I dread to think of the money involved in that project.

5h4mr0(k

CptSternn wrote: »

You think thats bad, I just finished a contract working in Dublin for a department of the government. I won't say which, as you will know who I am on about and I don't want to start any issues here, but...

I managed the mail server farms. I ran a large project where we upgraded all the mail servers from an old VMs system to all new Exchange 2010. The hardest part of the migration?

The mobile phones.

Why?

All of the department, a couple hundred, had all the same mobile phones. They were all Windows phones and linked right up without issue. All except three phones - Blackberrys. Why did we have three Blackberries? One was for a minister, the other were for his two aides. Because of the two blackberries they had we had to setup a RIM server and then link it into the new server farms. The project took six months, two of which we had to work on getting those three bb phones working. We had to call in RIM specialists and get a separate server plus bring in an employee whose only job it was to mind that server.

True story. The person is obviously FF, but I'm not saying who or which department.

At the end of the day we spent months and the government paid tens of thousands so a minister and his two staff could use the blackberry devices because they didn't like the Windows phones, not that they every tried them.

Whats even more sad - I spoke with a few others in the IT department there that bounce around in other departments and found the same is happening in other places as well - ministers that want to use iphones or blackberries costing the taxpayers lots so they can have the phone of their choice.

I'm shocked but not surprised. When you consider the amounts of money that some ministers have wasted in the past on things like their own letter head paper with crazy ink requirements. It is the type of thing that should be brought to the attention of the public accounts committee, but of course they'll be gone now for a while.
If you think it was a waste of time and money, just think, within the next two months there is a very strong possibility that all the work done for the BB will be redundant. (just to compound the waste)

Ireland Inc is the most dysfunctional company around. A fact that is reflected in the strength of it's current balance sheet, and the lack of confidence in the stock market (bond sales).

How many successfully companies can you name that have different phone, payroll, email systems etc., especially within subsidiaries?

I'm sure that this project had been specified prior to going to tender., and that would have been approved. But who approved the changes to the spec and the cost overrun? Who'll be held accountable and who'll be picking up the tab?

CptSternn

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

If you think it was a waste of time and money, just think, within the next two months there is a very strong possibility that all the work done for the BB will be redundant. (just to compound the waste)

I'm sure that this project had been specified prior to going to tender., and that would have been approved. But who approved the changes to the spec and the cost overrun? Who'll be held accountable and who'll be picking up the tab?

That was the saying when I was finishing up. Every time we got a call about the RIM server or we had to ring the specialist to install a patch that was rolled out we all said 'it wont be long until we can get rid of this whole bastard system'.

The top of the food chain is the minister, and if you get their approval for any project you don't have to look further. Therefore if a minister decides they want to do something, there is no real oversight to stop them.

I'm betting the next crowd will have something else. There were already rumblings about iphones and ipads - products which quite possibly are the bane of my and every other network engineers existence. Forget about trying to use them in an office, they have so many problems I could start a forum just for the issues apple products cause.