Kerchingagain

There's nothing like helping out old buddies eh? That warm feeling of familiarity, mutual backscratching etc and NCC is no different.

Old pals Invigor8, whose name is more reminiscent of a boy band than a management consultancy, have got the job training human resources about competence. And believe me, someone needs to.

If you're a regular reader you'll remember that we last heard from Invigor8 when they were named as NCC's latest 'culture' consultants and we made one or two snide remarks about their apparent obedience and ability to provide the right answers. Purely in the spirit of satire obv.

This time they've got the job under special procedures allowing the normal financial regulations to be bypassed, following the portfolio decision made by Cllr Chapman. They'll be getting another £15k for this. Hmmm...

In another blast from the past. PricewaterhouseCoopers make a welcome return to conduct a review of the NCC's internal audit procedures.

I last mentioned Internal Audit when they confirmed many of my criticisms of the Housing Benefits service, albeit a bit late. Housing Benefits are one of NCC's bright shining stars because they are the most successful at hiding how shit they are from the Audit Commission, so its perhaps not so surprising that the spotlight has fallen on anybody who blows the gaff on them.

This decision appears to have been made under a 'framework agreement' agreed by the Executive Board in November 2008. I'd like to have a look at what that entails but unfortunately I can't find the minutes anywhere so if anybody can help...?

Whatever it involves it appears that individual projects are subject to the normal decision making rules, this time via yet another portfolio decision from Cllr Chapman.

Anyway the costs. PwC Partner Richard Bacon charges £2,142 per day for his time, Principal Consultant Chris Dickens gets £1,533 per day and the two Senior Consultants get £1,350 per day. Bringing up the rear is the Junior Consultant (special responsibilities, fetching sandwiches from Pret, coffee from Starbucks) on £315 per day. Nice work if you can get it.

In all PwC expect to be paid £14,217 for a total of 11.5 person days work, not including expenses which are capped at 10% or £1,422. As well as the coffee and sarnies that should cover them for a couple of Easyrider passes and a box of biros.