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VOYAGER INTO THE UNKNOWN

28-01-2008

Birmingham Council’s Deputy Leader will be demanding an immediate update today into the progress of the city’s new Voyager IT system – following The Stirrer’s revelations that hundreds of creditors remain unpaid. It’s been alleged at least one local authority office has been visited by bailiffs.

Paul Tilsley, who’s overseeing the Business Transformation programme of which Voyager is part, said that he was aware there had been “teething problems” but had assumed these would be sorted by the end of January.

“The problem is the sheer volume we have to deal with”, he explained. "We get something like 30,000 invoices a month.

“We need to get it sorted by the end of the financial year in March, because in that month the number of invoices doubles.

“What we’re trying to do is take a nineteenth century system and make it work in the twenty first century. The aim is that you won’t see a cheque. An invoice will be received, and the payment will be made straight into bank account.”

We reported on Friday that some libraries in Birmingham weren’t receiving their daily supply of papers, because newsagents were boycotting the Council until their bills were settled (see link here)

This was followed by the suggestion that debtors were warning they would send in the bailiffs – a thread allegedly carried out at the Sparkbrook Neighbourhood Office (see link here)

Tilsley said he was unaware of these incidents, but admitted, “We have issued handwritten cheques" to settle outstanding sums. He promised to order a full review today.

See also a blog entry by former Birmingham Cabinet member John Tyrrell who’s still awaiting payment for work he carried out in October see link here