The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s finance director making a budget request to a committee. He says the request should not have been made. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s finance director making a budget request to the Finance, Policy and Resources committee. He says the request should not have been made. He also complains the Council misrepresented his complaint so it could decline to investigate it.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council’s finance director brought a budget request to the Finance, Policy and Resources committee for approval. This was to fund a scheme to refurbish a health suite.
Mr X says this request should not have been brought to the committee as no budget request had been made by the Environment, Sustainability, Culture and Sports committee for the repurposing of funds as no decision had been made regarding the future of the health suite.
An investigation is not justified as there is insufficient evidence of fault. Mr X has brought several complaints to us regarding the Council’s decision regarding the future of a health suite. We declined to investigate the complaints as there was insufficient evidence of fault with how the Council made its decision.
Therefore, it follows we are not likely to find fault with the director’s decision to make a budget request as this was the correct process to follow to ensure appropriate funds were allocated to allow the scheme to progress. While I acknowledge Mr X disagrees with the use of the funds, this does not mean there was fault with the Council’s actions to make a budget request.
Mr X also complained the Council misrepresented his complaint so it could decline to investigate it. He also complains the Council failed to respond to his complaint within the timescales set out in its complaints policy.
We will not investigate this further as it is not a good use of public funds to investigate the Council’s complaint handling as we have decided not to investigate the substantive issues raised in the complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault. In addition, we will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling as we are not investigating the substantive complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman