Nigel Farage to send first ‘Doge' team into Kent council
Kent county council will become the first authority under Reform to face an Elon Musk-style Doge audit on Monday as a team of tech experts visit and analyse its spending.
The party chairman's, Zia Yusuf, has assembled a unit modelled on Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which until recently was led by Musk.
Reform said it will be led by a man it described as 'one of the UK's leading tech entrepreneurs' but has not named him. The party said he has a specialism in data analytics who has also been a 'turnaround CEO'.
His team are software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors. The new unit will visit and analyse all ten councils now controlled by Reform since the party's victory in last month's local elections. Kent county council has a budget of more than £2.5 billion.
Nigel Farage declared that 'every county needs a Doge ' after Reform won 677 seats — 39 per cent of all seats up for grabs in the local elections last month. He claimed that cash was being wasted on consultants, climate change initiatives and 'areas that county councils frankly shouldn't even be getting involved in'.
Linden Kemkaran, the Reform leader of Kent council, has written to Amanda Beer, its chief executive, about her intention to carry out a review of the council's finances, which is co-signed by Farage and Yusuf.
It has requested information including 'contractual arrangements with suppliers and consultants, all capital expenditure, use of framework agreements and direct awards, any off-book or contingent liabilities, use of reserves and financial resilience and any audit flags raised by internal or external auditors in the last three years'.
It also requests that all council officers provide the Doge team with 'full and prompt access' to council-held documents, reports and records in electronic and paper form, relevant finance procurement, audit and contract data, meeting minutes and correspondence concerning major procurements and any international investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters.
The letter states: 'Following the outcome of the recent local elections and the formation of a new administration under the Reform Party, the council's leadership has resolved to undertake a review of the council's 'financial management, procurement activity, and associated governance arrangements'.
'This review is part of Reform's commitment to transparency, accountability, the prudent management of public funds and the highest standards in public life.
'Conducting this work was a core part of Reform's local manifesto. We believe it is in the public interest to ensure that the council's financial and procurement systems are robust, lawful, and value-driven.
'To that end, Kent council has appointed the Doge team, a unit of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors to conduct this review on our behalf.'
The letter warns that if the chief executive resists the request for the Doge-style audit, the party will pass a motion to 'compel the same and will consider any obstruction of our councillors duties to be gross misconduct'.
The letter adds: 'We trust this will not be required.'
Last week Farage said that an estimated £7 billion could be saved by scrapping 'diversity, equality and inclusion' initiatives across the public sector.
One of Reform's new councillors recently said the party will also ask members of the public to track down wasteful spending rather than paying management consultants to do the exercise.
Darren Grimes, 31, a newly elected county councillor for Durham and a former GB News presenter, said last month: 'We're not going to give vast sums to a stream of consultants from London's financial district — like giving PwC [the consulting firm] a shed sum of money.'
His idea is to publish problematic contracts and allow councillors and members of the public to hunt for gremlins to 'get the best bang for the taxpayers' buck'.
He added: 'I've been approached by many people with ideas and interest in scrutinising,' he said. 'We'll be transparent and allow people to look into the contracts that we find, and a lot of this advice [will be] given for free.'
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