Cardiff Council is failing to address weak performance in key service areas because of ‘fragmented’ leadership, auditors have warned.
A damning report from the Wales Audit Office (WAO) today said that while Cardiff continues to deliver a balanced budget, prospects for achieving forecast savings over 2014-15 remained ‘uncertain’.
Auditors also branded methods of service delivery at the local authority ‘unsustainable’ given the expected size of future funding cuts.
Council leader Cllr Phil Bale admitted the report made for ‘a sobering read’ yet added that Cardiff was ‘under no illusion about the task facing us’.
A peer review conducted by the Welsh Local Government Association in 2013 identified a number of issues that Cardiff needed to address. However the WAO concluded the council had not made enough progress in addressing issues, adding that ‘substantial risks remain’.
Processes to ensure good governance are not being implemented, while decision making processes are ‘inefficient and lack transparency’ – according to the report.
Auditor general for Wales, Huw Vaughan Thomas, said: ‘Cardiff Council, like all local authorities across Wales, is facing significant cuts in funding.
‘The council is not doing enough to plan for these cuts in funding or to address long-standing weaknesses in its services. I hope today’s report provides the impetus to address these issues and to build on new processes and procedures which the council is starting to put in place.’
Cllr Bale said that since his appointment in April, a programme of development at the council had been ‘driving forward a much more customer and community focused agenda’. He added that a Challenge Forum has drawn together ‘experts in local government service delivery to test, challenge and support our approach’.
Chief executive of Cardiff Council, Paul Orders, said it was ‘important’ the pace of change continued.
