Reform UK to send first ‘Doge' team to look at council spending in Kent
Reform UK is set to send in its first Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit to look at 'wasteful spending' in councils.
A team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will 'visit and analyse' local authorities, starting with Kent County Council on Monday, the party said.
It follows the US Doge, which was launched during Donald Trump's presidency to cut federal spending. Billionaire Musk was involved but has since left his position spearheading the unit.
Reform says its UK version will be led by a yet-unnamed man described as one of the country's 'leading tech entrepreneurs with a specialism in data analytics who has also been a turnaround CEO'.
The party said that the unit will use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to 'identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions'.
A letter sent to Kent County Council, which Reform now controls after the May local elections, read: 'The scope of the review includes but is not limited to: 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, any audit flags raised by internal or external auditors in the last three years.
'We request that all relevant council officers provide the Doge team with full and prompt access to: Council-held documents, reports and records (electronic and paper), relevant finance, procurement, audit and contract data, meeting minutes and correspondence concerning major procurements, any internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters, any additional documents that might be of assistance.'
It added: 'Should you resist this request, we are ready to pass a council motion to compel the same and will consider any obstruction of our councillors' duties to be gross misconduct. We trust this will not be required.'
It is signed by council leader Linden Kemkaran, party chairman Zia Yusuf and party leader Nigel Farage.
Mr Yusuf said: "For too long British people have been British taxpayers have watched their money vanish into a black hole.
"Their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed, their local services keep getting cut. Reform won a historic victory on a mandate to change this.
"As promised, we have created a UK Doge to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Our team will use cutting-edge technology and deliver real value for voters."
A Kent County Council spokesman declined to comment.
The Liberal Democrats, who are the second-biggest party in Kent, say that when so much of the budget is mandatory, Reform have very little room to make savings.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Richard Streatfield, Kent County Council, said: "Cuts are not part of the equation.
"We have a growing population of over 65s who are using demand-led services and only 0.6% of our budget is on discretionary services.
"We are using 99.4% of the county council's taxpayer's money for services that we are legally obliged to provide."
Sarah Barwick, Branch Secretary of Unison said: "There's fears of job cuts. KCC's really reduced its number of staff in the number of years I've been employed.
"We're right at almost the lowest point of staff that you can get without serious problems that could compromise the services."
During a local election campaign launch in March, Mr Farage told supporters: "Frankly folks, what we need in this country to pay for the cuts that people deserve and need, we need a British form of Doge, as Elon Musk has got in America. Let's have a British Doge."
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