Shokat Lal on Davey and Oracle Fusion

One of the causes of Birmingham City Council's bankruptcy at the hands of Labour was/is a colossal overspend on an Oracle computer system. Having spent £100m it decided, four years later, to start again. A report described the fiasco as an unmitigated failure.

Bent Labour Sandwell has also decided to go with Oracle for its new system. Guess what? Yes, there have been problems and rumours from within (although not, so far as I am aware, from the rump of Tory Councillors) of a dramatic, er, overspend.

Insiders claim that Chief Executive, Shokat Lal, when not out partying with Labour current and former Councillors, sent a memo to staff saying that the implementation of the Oracle system had been delayed from July until October (and see further below).

Also, remember Alice Davey? She was the Council Director who so memorably humiliated chocolate p*sspot Liam Preece (Labour) in a public meeting when she was "Director of Borough Economy". Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DX2ajk1qDk

You can also read more about this amazing episode via an earlier post:

https://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com/2023/08/bumper-summer-skidder-double-holiday.html

Davey was also supposed to be the boss of the disastrous Matt Huggins (Skidders passim).

Shocked Sandwell insiders contacted The Skidder to say that Davey had not been kicked out in yet another rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic but had been made the new Director of ICT and Transformation ("ICT" means Information and Communications Technology and "Transformation" means f*ck all). I duly wrote to Lal about these issues:

"THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION - PRESS ENQUIRY 

THIS IS A PRESS ENQUIRY AND NOT A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

I am informed that Alice Davey has been appointed as Director of IT and Transformation on a six-figure salary plus LG pension:

Part One

1   Where was this post advertised?

2   How many applicants were there for the post?

3   Was there any external process in Ms Davey's appointment and, if so, what?

4   What IT qualifications does Ms Davey currently hold?

5   What experience does Ms Davey have of managing IT Services during her career to date?

Part Two

Oracle Fusion has been a major problem for SMBC as with Birmingham City Council (and is now part of Ms Davey's remit). I am informed, rightly or wrongly, that on 8th July you emailed all employees stating that the implementation of the new Oracle system has been delayed from July to October. Is that correct? Does this mean additional costs for the taxpayer?"

It took Lal a mere 35 days to respond to a legitimate press enquiry:

"In relation to your questions on the process undertaken for recruitment to the post of Service Director – ICT & Transformation, we would advise –

1.       The post Service Director – ICT & Transformation was established as part of the phase one review of the Council’s Strategic Leadership Team. In accordance with due process for the conduct of leadership and service reviews, opportunity was in the first instance given to those individuals – in this case Directors impacted by the phase one review - and subject to redundancy to express interest in any vacant posts of a comparable level of seniority as a suitable alternative role. The post of Service Director – ICT & Transformation having been established was available for this purpose.

2.       There was one applicant for this role, the application being made through the process set out in our response at (1) above.

3.       As indicated in our response at (1) above, opportunity was in the first instance given to those Directors impacted by the phase one review of the Council’s Strategic Leadership Team and subject to redundancy to express interest in vacant posts of a comparable level of seniority as a suitable alternative role.  

4.       Recruitment to the post included the preparation of a detailed job description and person specification which set out essential and desirable levels of skill, professional knowledge, and experience commensurate with the role. A qualification in ICT is neither an essential or desirable part of the criteria for this post.

Following application and expression of interest, it was determined that the post of Service Director – ICT & Transformation was of a comparable level to that held by Ms Davey. In turn, following assessment of the extensive professional experience of leading and managing transformation projects held by Ms Davey, set against the significant senior service leadership experience deemed both essential and necessary to operate effectively in this role, it was appropriate to identify a match with this post.

5.       Please refer to our response to question (4) above. Ms Davey possesses extensive professional experience of leading and managing services and transformation projects, along with significant senior service leadership experience necessary to operate effectively in this role.

Turning to those elements of your request which relate to the Council’s implementation programme for Oracle Fusion, we would advise that Oracle Fusion is complex Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERPS) for the whole of the Council and its partners. The Council has an established project team leading the development and delivery of this programme which involves staff from across the Council, it’s partners and from contracted workers.

The Senior Responsible Officer for the programme is the Executive Director of Finance and Transformation. The timescales for implementation are clearly dependent upon important technical and operational milestones being achieved, which is consistent with best practice in programme management. The Council updated the Audit and Risk Committee on progress on 18th July with External Auditors Grant Thornton in attendance.

The final costs and benefits of the system will be published as part of the project closedown. This will have to be completed post implementation when all the relevant milestones have been achieved and full costs are known."

Dealing with the Oracle debacle first it will be noted that Lal was not prepared to say whether he DID write an email saying that the implementation would be put back? Why not? What is he hiding? Has the implementaion been put back of not?

At least Oracle is NOT the responsibility of Davey but of the s.151 Officer, Alex Thompson, who joined Sadders in May. He goes by the title of Executive Director of Finance and, er, Transformation (that bullsh*t word again!) Alex appears to have a strong CV (which begs the question why he would work for bent Sandwell) although his LinkedIn profile makes no specific reference to any computer expertise. 

As far as Davey herself is concerned and despite the techie-sounding job name you will note that in true Sadders-style there was only one appllcant for a job that was only advertised in-house. We have seen this sh*t before haven't we readers - notably with the disgraced former Chief Executive, David Stevens?

And although the job sounds techie Lal reassures us that an ICT qualification was "neither necessary nor desirable" for the ICT job! WTF???? Not even desirable? The clue is that the job was "on the same level" as Davey's redundant post. You will have smelt the bull*shit as you read the above.

A large part of the failure of Labour Sandwell Council has been incompetence and cronyism in addition to outright corruption. The amateurism of vast swathes of the staff has been astonishing. It looks like the Lal-era will continue the historic trend.

Oh, and did you notice that Lal dodged the question on the Oracle costs? He must know how much the contract was for and how much has been spent already. Fear not readers, a Freedom of Information request has been made as there is no possibility of the Tories ever getting the information. Let's just hope the mess isn't as bad as in Brum ...

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