Flea tells SIC chief to ‘get a grip’ after members again voice frustration over slow progress

Audit committee chairman Allison Duncan

A senior councillor has told the SIC’s chief to “get a grip” and deal with dozens of urgent recommendations.

Audit committee chairman Allison Duncan today (Wednesday) voiced considerable concern at the lack of progress made on key work – some of which has been outstanding since 2019.

Internal auditors have repeatedly warned that the SIC remains exposed to risk if it does not deal with their recommendations.

Problem areas highlighted in the report include the council’s use of consultants, dealing with staff absence and issues to do with the inter-island ferry service.

But despite members making urgent requests for officials to progress their work in November – just two out of 26 have been taken off the books since then.

Mr Duncan said zero progress had been made on several items.

“To me that situation is completely unacceptable and has to be addressed with urgency,” he said.

“The chief executive should get a grip on this situation.”

Shetland Central councillor Moraig Lyall was also disappointed by the lack of progress.

Mrs Lyall noted there had been quite a few outstanding requirements deemed of high importance that had been “lagging for some time”.

She asked internal auditor Jillian Campbell whether other organisations she worked with were as slow in dealing with recommendations.

Ms Campbell said it was “not unusual” but added that some had been allowed to go on for “too long, in our view”.

Lerwick South councillor Cecil Smith suggested the time might come when it was best to just to “write-off” some of the recommendations and accept they would never get done.

“There will have to come a time when we say enough is enough, because this keeps continually coming up and nothing is getting done,” he said.

Depute leader Gary Robinson was of a similar opinion.

He suggested reviewing whether six-year-old recommendations were still relevant or necessary.

And finance director Paul Fraser agreed with that approach.

“Are we just wasting our breath here and should we just move on?”

Corporate services director Christine Ferguson insisted there had been some progress.

She also highlighted the impact of vacancies on small teams.

And she noted that the pandemic had happened since some of the longer terms recommendations had been made.

She said there had been “serious upheaval” and the council had to focus on “keeping services going through totally unprecedent events”

“I appreciate people don’t want to hear Covid-19 given as an excuse, however it was significant to the work that was done during that period when it was absolutely imperative that what we focused on was front line services.”

Shetland Central member Catherine Hughson said that while some progress had bee made “we must continue at pace” to get the rest completed.