Oxford City Council’s publication of spending information for the year 2009-10 is welcome, as is deputy leader Ed Turner’s willingness to provide details of any transaction on request.

I suspect he will be a busy man, as the 28 page Spend by Amount document raises more questions than it answers, as no description is provided of the services rendered. Here are some questions arising just from page one of the document.

Champion Employment (whose slogan is “Finding the right people”) were paid £3,515,720 – nearly double the amount of the previous year.

Why? Surely hiring temporary staff is a false economy?

Nuffield College’s £640,539 is one of the most surprising entries. What did they do?

Osborne Richardson, which got £517,888, are “Specialist providers of human resources and consultancy services”. This does rather put in to question what the authority’s own HR people do. Why was it necessary to employ this firm?

The Audit Commission collected £369,190. This soon to be abolished body is responsible for ensuring value for money in local government. How does paying them hundreds of thousands represent value for money?

Frankham Consultancy received £366,515 – it claims to “use intelligent ideas to create human benefits”. Maybe Mr Turner could give us an example of one of their intelligent ideas, and how it benefited the people of Oxford.

The Clarkson Alliance was paid £353,872. Its motto is “We believe looking at the bigger picture gives us the edge – the leading edge”. It certainly has the edge in taking our money. But what for?

I’m sure other residents will have many more questions. Could I suggest that the city council provides a brief description of the services provided by each supplier, along with the amounts paid? That really would represent progress in open and accountable local government.

Chris Brewer, Oxfordshire Green Party, McCabe Place, Headington, Oxford