'Corruption risk' for one-party councils

Local Government in England should adopt the Scottish system of single transferable voting (STV) to protect against corruption and inefficiency, according to the Electoral Reform Society (ERS).

In a new report ‘The Cost of One-Party Councils’ the ERS measures councils’ procurement process against a Corruption Risk Index and finds one-party councils are around 50 per cent more at risk of corruption than those with robust political competition.

The report also finds local authorities dominated by one party could be missing out on savings of around £2.6bn when compared to politically competitive counterparts.

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Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of ERS, said lack of scrutiny in procurement was a “damning indictment” of the first past the post system in England.

“A fairer system, such as the one used in Scotland for local elections, would make ‘one-party states’ a thing of the past. And by letting the sunlight in, a fairer voting system could lead to substantial savings for the taxpayer.

“It’s time politicians from all parties woke up to the need for a fairer voting system. First Past the Post is hurting our democracy, and now it looks like it’s hurting us in the pocket too,” she said.

The Corruption Risk Index is based on six ‘red flag’ warning signs, based on data from 132,000 public procurement contracts. These include: only a single procurement bid submitted, no publication of call for tenders in an official public procurement journal, the use of less open procedures such as invitation tenders, an overly short period between advertising a tender and submission deadline, subjective or hard-to-quantify evaluation criteria and an unusually short or lengthy time given for decision.

'Weak electoral accountability', according to the ERS is when councils are run by a party with over two thirds of the seats. Eight councils in Scotland have majority administrations - Angus, Dundee, Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian. However because of the STV voting system none are run by a party with two-thirds majority, and all seats are contested.