Who, what and how much … part 2

On Tuesday we asked “who, what and how much?” in relation to West Midlands Centre of Excellence (WMCOE).

We emailed WMCOE to ask that question (and some others) and got a reply pointing us to their website …

Hi,

I’ve just read this: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/8248

All I can gather from the press release is that £800k of taxpayers money has been handed over to some people I’ve never heard of for something I’ve never heard of by some people (your organisation) I’ve never heard of.

Who are you, what do you do, what is this money for and where did it come from? How much does your organisation cost the taxpayer and how much money do you channel through your organisation?

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Thank you so much for showing interest in our organisation. I have forwarded to you the link from our website where I believe answers to all of your questions can be found. If I may draw your attention to the menu heading, ‘About Us’, I think you will find the answers to most of your questions here.If you find that there are still questions you would like us to answer then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

regards
Jane Daly

http://www.wmcoe.gov.uk

Jane Daly
West Midlands Centre of Excellence
Regional Partnership Centre
Albert House
Quay Place
Edward Street
Birmingham
B1 2RA
Tel: 0121 245 0225
http://www.wmcoe.gov.uk

I’ve looked at the website and it’s all very interesting.  They are apparently hosted by Worcester Council although their address, as you can see, is in Birmingham.  As best I can determine, they have a budget of £5.2m over 5 years provided by the taxpayer.  Their purpose is to save money for local authorities by improving efficiency.

WMCOE claim to be accountable because they are made up of representatives of local authorities.  Nobody is elected to WMCOE, they are appointed.  The boards of the rest of the unelected, unaccountable regional quango’s are made up exactly the same and they don’t even bother claiming to be accountable.

So, are my questions answered?  Kind of.  Budgets alone don’t tell you how much these quango’s cost.  It costs money for local authorities to send people to work on them.  It costs money to consult with them and to implement their policies.