Revealed: Boston’s

very own

(pro rata)

“fat cat!”

Despite its best efforts to avoid transparency, the sunlight of openness is finding Boston Borough Council in much the same way that the first rays of dawn turned Count Dracula to ashes.
Last week's battle over the public disclosure of the council's leisure services report, at which the local press and public stood up to be counted, was just such an example. The report was categorised as confidential and printed on pink paper to identify it as such, and when it came to be discussed, the press and public were ordered to leave the council chamber. Such events have become commonplace during the reign of the Boston Bypass Independents.
Now, though, events are combining to pressure the council into telling the people who fund it exactly where their money is going.
The most important of these is the publication of items of council expenditure over £500, which recently became compulsory.
Even then, Boston Borough Council manages to be not quite as open as it might be.
“While we aim to be as transparent as possible, there may be some cases where we need to withhold information that could be regarded as sensitive for commercial or security reasons, or to protect personal privacy,” it says.
There are now also websites such as “Openly Local” - a new project to develop an open and unified way of accessing Local Government information which has so far opened up data from more than 140 local authorities, with more being added every week.
Then there is the “What do they know?” website – which lists freedom of information requests made to local authorities, together with their response.
As a for instance amidst all of this, Boston's list of spending in excess of £500 includes a company called Mrf UK Ltd, which appears on “Openly Local's” website as the council's fourth biggest “customer” - providing “agency staff services.”
Of the costs on this list, Boston Borough Council says: “Our aim is to obtain best value on everything we purchase. This is supported through the operation of fair and open competition by following transparent and auditable procedures in all tendering and contracting activity.”
The Mrf costs caught the eye of Boston accountant Darron Abbott, who noted that services charged by this company totalled £32,259.17 for the period September to November last year.
For that 91 day period the council was billed £600 a day for a total of 47 days' work - plus expenses.
The owner of Mrf UK is Boston's Chief Executive, Richard Harbord, whose contact was recently extended to November.
“My basic maths tells me if we paid him this for a five day week it would cost us £156,000.” says Darron Abbott. “Whilst I appreciate that if he was directly employed it would cost us (the taxpayers) employers' national insurance contribution and a pension contribution, I still think this is a luxury we cannot afford here in Boston.”
Luxury is certainly the right word as far as we are concerned. Fifteen days work a month means fifteen days off - which is as near as part-time as you can get.
In this respect, Mr Harbord joins the council's Head of Resources – who divides his time equally between Boston and East Lindsey District Council.
Two top officers - one full time job.
Surely, Boston deserves something better.
Mr Harbord's projected annual salary of £156,000 puts him alongside the 43% of local authority chief executives paid more than £150,000 last year - trumping the prime minister's salary of £142,500.
Mr Abbott, who plans to stand for Boston Borough Council in the May 5th elections, told Boston Eye: “I really believe the public should be aware of how the council tax is spent. One thing I would like to change if I get elected is the amount of pink paper that is consumed within the municipal buildings. The public should be aware of what the councillors and officers are up to.”
According to the professional networking website Linkedin, - which helps members find past and present colleagues and discover “inside connections” when they are looking for a job or a new business opportunity – Richard Harbord is interested in job inquiries, expertise requests, business deals, reference requests, and “getting back in touch.”
Plenty of time for that with all those idle hours, then?

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