Mayor's office overspends two years in a row

The Mayor’s office of Derry City and Strabane District Council has overspent its allocated annual budget for the second year in a row, Derry Now can reveal.

The budget is set at £91,200 per year, the highest amount out of the 11 councils across the North.

The overspend was made public at a meeting of Council’s Governance and Strategic Planning committee in June.

It was outlined in a document titled: ‘Derry City and Strabane District Council, Year ended 31st March 2023, Financial Outturn summary’.

The overspend in the Mayor’s office was presented to councillors as a “variance”, or overspend, of £46,717, alongside the commentary: “savings on office related costs and travel costs etc. offset by overspend on mayor’s budget and legal costs following a number of Council motions re Brexit challenge etc.”

Following the Governance and Strategic Planning committee meeting, Derry Now asked Council’s press office to confirm the “exact overspend on the mayor’s budget and how this was incurred”.

We also sought confirmation on the exact overspend on the legal costs following Council motions; what the Council motions were; and an itemisation of how they caused an overspend.

In an unusual move, Derry Now was informed by the press office the query was being “treated as an FOI (Freedom of Information) request and had been forwarded to the FOI team internally to follow up with you directly”.

Derry News received the FOI reply on July 6.

This information in the reply confirmed that the “variance” of £46,717, presented to councillors at the Governance and Strategic Planning committee, consisted of a £44,555 overspend detailed as “visit / receptions (incorporating mayor’s budget)”.

This was further broken down as variances (overspends) of £8,557 on the mayor’s budget, (April to May 2022) and £1,300 on the mayor’s budget (June 2022 to March 2023).

The figure for the total overspend on the previous mayor's budget remains unknown as the overspend figures for the period April 2023 to June 2023 are not yet publicly available.

The rest of the figure consisted of Council facility recharges at £34,413; and corporate events, including the Christmas lights switch on at £14,500, a total of £58,770, minus consumable costs associated with supplies to Mayor’s parlour totaling £14,215.

The FOI made no mention of legal costs following a number of Council motions regarding Brexit etc being included in the £44,555.

Speaking to Derry Now about the Mayor’s office overspend, former Derry City and Strabane District councillor, Emmet Doyle (Aontú) revealed he had been made aware of the overspend issue as far back as March.

Mr Doyle said: “I was approached by a constituent who had submitted a Freedom of Information request about spending. He was told there was an overspend in the Mayor’s office of just over £3,000.

“I was contacted via Twitter and showed the response to a Council official and asked for the details behind it.

“After a period where my emails were not returned, I was then told in writing there was no overspend at all, and that elected members would receive a report on spending, in the new term.

“I waited for that report and lo and behold, the new Council was told there was an overspend after all. At this point, there were three different stories: what I was told; what the constituent was told; and what elected members were told,” said Mr Doyle.

Emmet Doyle said he subsequently emailed Derry City and Strabane District Council’s chief executive outlining the situation and asking him to look into it.

Mr Doyle added: “I was concerned I had been told a lie and I was utterly disgusted by it.

“I issued a detailed FOI request myself and I got the same response as Derry News.

“To go from no overspend to this amount is significant, more so when people are struggling to pay their bills. I don’t blame the person in the chain, they do not manage the budget.

“If, as I was, a councillor was being frustrated and then given information, that is entirely wrong. It raises serious questions.

“During my time in Council, I always prioritised the monitoring of how ratepayers’ money was being spent. I sat on the Audit Committee for my entire term, and, not once, was any overspend reported to us,” said Mr Doyle.

Mr Doyle then reiterated the facts regarding the Mayor’s office overspend, which only became public when councillors received a copy of the ‘Financial Outturn summary’ at the first Governance and Strategic Planning meeting of the new mandate.

He said: “At that stage, current councillors were told the overspend was covered by an underspend in other areas.

“I don’t think for a second if they had been told at the time, they would have prioritised the mayor’s budget over other pressing matters.

“I hope those now in Council are willing to ask senior officials, ‘What has gone wrong here’ This is such a blatant breakdown in accountability and councillors would never have known, I would never have known, if a constituent had not taken an interest in it. That is totally unacceptable.”

Following the receipt of its  Freedom of Information request, Derry News asked Derry City and Strabane District Council for a comment for inclusion in this article.

A spokesperson said: While the overall Council cost centre for the 22/23 financial year is £44,555 overspent, the budget within the 2022/23 Mayor’s control – Mayoral Budget – is overspent by an amount of £1,300 only, which is broadly attributable to residual Covid costs associated with Mayoral tea dances. 

“Council reassures the public that  all budgets are monitored and audited.”