Council 'financial error' leads to £1.1m overspend
A £1.1million budget overspend caused by a miscalculation in how much a contract cost has left Slough Borough Council officers red-faced.
The error was revealed at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday.
The committee was discussing the performance and finance report for the first quarter of the financial year with assistant director of finance and audit Joseph Harris when the issue came up.
The cost of a transactional services contract with private firm arvato, which saw some of the council's services outsourced, was miscalculated, leading to a £2.7m gap within the existing budget requirement for the contract.
A council spokeswoman said: "The transactional services contract was always designed to bring overall savings to the council as well as a whole host of other benefits including service improvements for residents.
"Unfortunately we made an error in calculating exactly how much the overall contract cost would be, which means the savings expected were unrealistic.
"This has now been amended for the costs in the future."
The meeting took place at Chalvey Community Centre.
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