“Mistakes” in STC financial data

Once again, I have to write about the incompetence of Jennifer Jeffries- STC Town Clerk. There are only two reasons why the ‘errors’ I show below were included in the report presented at the ‘Precept Meeting’. The Town Clerk deliberately placed these errors in the report or due to her incompetence. There is no other possibility.

Which is worse? I don’t know. I do know, however, that Labour should clear this up and not allow these kinds of ‘errors’ to appear in STC documents. So which errors am I writing about? First, let’s look at the 2022 financial report.

Here we see that utilities at the Leisure Centre cost the taxpayer £80,000. We also see that STC has set a budget for this at £20,000 for next year. That is important.

A small note- half of that £80,000 is outstanding electricity bills from previous years. So we have to assume the cost was around £40,000. Now let’s look at the same table published in the 2023 report.

Firstly- the planned budget changed from 20,000 to 25,000. No discussion, no explanation. Just like that. There are MANY changes like that in the report where the Town Clerk adjust the figures without explanation like she is the town owner; like she does not have to consult any financial changes with elected members. After all, she signed a debt extension “on behalf of STC” without even informing STC. I think she breached the terms of her contract here, but… who cares, right?

In other words, the Town Clerk takes the figures out of thin air, so then they have no basis in reality. The Town Clerk changes them to suit her and Labour Party needs. She changes the budget assumption so that budget overruns do not look as big as they actually were. This is creative accounting.

In the private sector, such a thing is a criminal offence. For Civil Servants in STC- it looks like “business as usual”. I have an accountant friend – when I told her about it, she didn’t believe me. When I showed her the screens, she laughed and still didn’t believe me, so I had to explain it to her in detail. For her (someone who deals with accounting daily), the practice of changing budget figures during the financial year is unacceptable. These changes falsify the true picture of an organisation’s financial health and management quality.

Whether the change in budget assumption is a “mistake” due to the Town Clerk’s incompetence or a deliberate act by her- we won’t know. Labour doesn’t ask such questions, and since they now have 100% of the seats in STC- there will be no one there to ask these questions. They will sweep it under the carpet like any scandal.

THERE IS MORE
Secondly- according to the report, in 2023, the cost of utilities will be 11,000. This is an obvious ‘mistake’. Electricity alone costs over 13,000 per year, according to the contract that Town Clerk refused to show me even though- she wrote in report that I can read it. Then she refused to set up meeting. I tried several times. She an d Labour just dont want residents to know details of utility prices. Its not a hot topic, right?

Add pellets and water to this pile of crap shown in the “financial report”. Pellets alone double figure shown by Town Clerk. Did she forget about heating and hot water? So where did the Town Clerk get this 11,000 from? I have no idea!

THE FUNNIEST THING
Thirdly- if the budget was “set” at 25k and we spent 11k, then how come the Town Clerk has announced that this item is 36k below the planned budget!!! What hellish math is that? Where is she getting these figures from??? Honestly- this report looks like it was written by a drunken illiterate and not someone who is being paid close to £50,000 for their work.

In a simplest way: we had 25 apples. We ate 11 apples. We should have 14 apples left. However, the Town Clerk says we have 36 apples left. Diane Abbot would be proud!

PATHETIC SCRUTINY- LABOUR BADGE OF HONOUR
Labour has literally had a month to review these figures. The Town Clerk first presented them to the ‘Finance & Growth Committee’ on 11 January 2023. None of the councillors present noticed the ‘errors’. After this, the “Precept meeting” scheduled for 25 January 20223 was cancelled. Labour had extra time to review the data. No one did so. When the “Precept meeting” finally took place, Labour councillors were so focused on giving a 27% pay rise to STC staff to buy their votes in coming elections- that no one noticed the “errors” in the report.

When I noticed these errors and wanted to talk about them at the meeting – the STC cancelled the meeting scheduled for 15 February. No cover-up here! All good in Labour land!

This is how things are done in a socialist paradise.

WHO CARES
As I write this article, I know that it will change nothing. The Town Clerk will continue to cash in close to 50,000 a year for something for which she would have been sacked in the private sector. Labour will continue to pretend that everything is OK. The people of Shirebrook will continue not to vote even though most of us know Labour is wasting our money.

This is sad.

Sylwester Zwierzynski