Kitting out Highland councillors costs £41,000
More than £41,000 was spent on IT equipment for Highland councillors following May’s local government elections, it has emerged.
The cash was used for hardware to kit out councillors across the region with technology which is understood to have included computers.
The authority’s finance, housing and resources committee was being asked to approve the transfer of £41,681 from council reserves to pay for the expenditure in members’ expenses today.
In a report to councillors, David Robertson, the head of accounting and budgeting, stated: "Following the council elections in May one-off costs of £41,681 were incurred to ensure that appropriate IT equipment was available to members as early as possible. It is recommended that these costs should be funded from council balances."
However, opposition councillors including Independent leader Carolyn Wilson and her colleague Helen Carmichael have questioned why the SNP-led administration want to take the money from the council’s balances.
Councillor Wilson said she thought the IT expenses would be included in the authority’s multi-million-pound contract with its supplier, the technology giant Fujitsu.
"We are not happy about this at all," said the opposition leader. "I think it is the cost of engineers going out to different parts of the Highlands to install equipment."
Councillor Carmichael (Aird and Loch Ness), who also thought the equipment would have been part of the Fujitsu contract, spotted the reference to the investment when she first read the agenda for the committee meeting.
But she was not satisfied with the explanations offered by senior council staff and asked for more information.
"I have asked that the officers get back to me before the meeting and have not had an explanation yet and that was last Friday (23.11) I asked," she said.
At the meeting in Inverness the committee chairman, Councillor Dave Fallows, was expected to give members an account of the IT investment.
There are 80 councillors who represent the region on the local authority.
The authority had set aside £350,000 to run the elections, of which £286,000 to date has been spent, excluding the IT costs.
