Release Date:  15-Feb-2008

Bristol City Council has today published in full a report commissioned from independent auditors into lessons to be learnt from the budget overspend on the Redland Green School.

The state-of-the art school was opened on time last September and is already proving enormously successful and popular with parents and children in North Bristol. It is part of a £263 million investment programme by the council to deliver new and refurbished schools across the city.

The report, by auditors Grant Thornton UK, makes a number of recommendations to strengthen the council's project and risk management processes and reinforce its consistent application of financial reporting and management procedures.

The report will be considered by the council's Resources Scrutiny Commission next week (February 22nd 2008)

Cllr Derek Pickup, Executive Member for Children's Services, said: “When I first took over as Executive Member in 2007, I was deeply concerned about this overspend and made it clear that there would be a full, open and honest appraisal of what went wrong and what might be done to minimise the risk of it ever happening again.

“I welcome this independent report which sets out clearly how the overspend came about and reinforces the action the council has taken since last year to strengthen its project and risk management processes for major schemes.

“As part of that action, the council has made it clear that it will avoid entering into a partnering process for a major building project whereby the project manager, quantity surveyor and design team are from the same consultancy or an associated consultancy. Indeed, major projects being taken forward today are all managed under completely different processes, which we are confident meet the recommendations made in this auditors' report. That said, we will be carefully considering the detail of the report to ensure any other changes that still need to made are introduced as soon as possible.

“In general, the council has an excellent track record of managing the financial aspects of projects and this was underlined by its 3 star rating for use of resources and financial management in this year's Audit Commission Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

“By publishing the auditors' independent report in full, the council is demonstrating its determination to be open and honest with the public and to learn the lessons from this experience.

“Legal negotiations are continuing with the design and project management consultants  and for this reason we will not prejudice those processes by commenting on any part of the report that refers to their role in the matter.”

Author:  

Katharine de Lisle Tel: 0117 92 22732

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