A salary survey conducted by Computer Economics Limited on behalf of the Society of IT Management suggests that local authorities remain a good place to work if you are in ICT, with councils currently offering slightly better salary increases, better retention levels and a wider range of benefits than the private sector. However, recruitment problems in the public sector are increasing even though they are currently less of a problem than in the private sector.The survey compared local authority ICT salaries with those across all industries. Average salaries within the sample show an increase of 5%, slightly up on last years figure of 4.8%. The increase remains slightly higher than 4.8 % of the private sector. At an organisational level staff working in Fire Services have received the greatest increase of 6.7% and at a regional level authorities in Wales have benefited the most with an average increase of 6.7%. At the opposite end of the scale District Councils with an increase of 3.8% and councils within the South East with a 4.5% increase are below the average.

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The Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative has become firmly established as the United Kingdom’s premier public sector fraud detection process. In the exercise just completed it identified 111 millions pounds fraudulently claimed from 1300 public bodies. This compares to 83 million pounds identified in the last exercise in 2002/03.The Commission uses advanced data matching techniques to tackle a broad range of fraud risks faced by the public sector such as council tenants with a council property in each of two authorities or a public sector employee on long term sickness leave from one organisation while working for another. When matches are detected they are referred to the local council or other public body potentially being defrauded and their investigators then pursue the case. The matching process does not compromise data privacy requirements. The fees charged by the Commission range from 450 to 1,900 pounds and matches now cover 100 per cent of local government expenditure.

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The most effective way to improve urban transport would be to devolve power from Whitehall and put it into the hands of local Transport Authorities. Council leaders would head up the Authorities and be able to take decisions about services which reflect the needs of local people. This is the conclusion of a report commissioned by the Local Government Association. The reform proposals, which include governance and financial arrangements, are designed to put pressure on the Government ahead of the white paper on double devolution from Whitehall to Townhall and on to communities, which is due to be published in a few weeks time.The report looks at ways for metropolitan district councils to provide democratic leadership to the wider ‘city region’ or ‘metropolitan’ areas. One option is for a new style Passenger Transport Authority to be formed from a joint executive of district leaders which in turn would appoint a board in the way the Mayor of London appoints the Transport for London Board.

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