Folkestone & Hythe District Council use 107 procurement contract waivers to bypass normal procurement rules to the value of more than £11 million.
The latest estimate of contract procurement fraud in local government was £4.4 billion pounds. Between 2016/17 and 2020/21 the Council have issued one hundred and seven contract procurement waivers using urgency or expediency with a value in excess of £11 million pounds.
At yesterday’s Council’s Q & A session held on YouTube, Cllr J Martin asked the failed double glazing salesman and leader of our Council, Cllr David Drury Monk, the following question.
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Can the Leader tell me how many waivers for procurement standing orders have been signed during this administration to date?
Cllr Monk’s response was 48 waivers have been used to procure goods and services in the last 20 months – May 2nd 2019 – Dec 11th 2020.
We know between 2016/17 and 2018/19 fifty two waivers had been issued by the Council using urgency and expediency as per Part 10 (Section 13) of the Council’s Constitution.
In 2019/20 the Council used 49 waivers and the value of the contracts was £6.2 million. This brings the value of all contracts issued via waiver (16/17 – 20/21) , using urgency or expediency to more than £11 million pounds.
Now Cllr Monk publicly informed Cllr J Martin that between 2nd May 2019 & Dec 11th 2020, the Council had used 48 waivers. Given that Cllr J Martin was elected on the 2nd May 2019, the number of waivers issued between 01/04/19 to 01/05/19, prior to his election was six. Minus these six waivers from the 49 waivers issued in 2019/20 means from 01/04/20 to 11/12/20, the Council have issued contracts only five waivers. Really!
We honestly believe given the track record of the Council over the last five years, the issuing of just five waivers to procure goods and services under urgency and expediency in 20/21, does not seem plausible or realistic. In fact, we honestly believe the Council are being economical with the truth, to residents and elected Cllrs.
Since Dr Susan Priest (pictured) has been the Chief Executive of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, seventy five of of one hundred and seven waivers issued in the last five financial years, or 70% of them, have been issued on her watch. This demonstrates a failure in proper management of the procurement process.
This matters as Part 10 (Section 13) of the Council’s Constitution sets out the process for waiver’s to be used
The Constitution makes clear:
All waivers from these Contract Standing Orders must be:
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a) Fully documented;
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b) Subject to a written report in an approved format to be submitted in advance to the relevant Head of Service which shall include reasons for the waiver which demonstrate that the waiver is genuinely required;
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c) Subject to approval in advance by theS151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer, or their nominated deputies, who shall record that they have considered the reasons for the waiver and that they are satisfied that the circumstances justifying the waiver are genuinely exceptional.
You better not hold your breath! This council is forever keeping vital information from the general public. Especially financial matters; we wonder why, what are they covering up?
It is at the least cronyism but is quite possibly far more serious than that. There is however a complete lack of investigating it by our MP or the mainstream media.
As a Council Officer there are those who KNOW more procurement fraud happens in this building than Council Tax or Housing Benefit fraud. The Cabinet Member for Fraud and Anti Money Laundering does not have the desire or intellectual capability, (take your pick) to deal with these urgent and important matter.
Working from home has its benefits and I hope the Shepway Vox Team got the documents I sent.
It is not surprising that the resident taxpayers are being taken for mugs when the lead from central government is to not comply to any procurement regulations. It states in the January 2019 review of The Local Government Ethical Standards that:
“An ethical culture will be an open culture. Local authorities should welcome and foster opportunities for scrutiny, and see it as a way to improve decision making. They should not rely unduly on commercial confidentiality provisions, or circumvent open decision making processes. Whilst local press can play an important role in scrutinising local government, openness must be facilitated by authorities’ own processes and practices.”
This is not the case for our District Council who have a history of bad decisions and the use of cloak and dagger tactics to promote theirs and their friends interests.
Quite simply simply our Council does not believe laws and legislation apply to them, and the complete lack of interest by authorities that should be acting only re-enforces this belief.
Actually this current council is being propped up by three non-tory councillors who ignored the voting wishes of their local voters in the 2019 elections..
Looks like there’s more swamp cleaning to do in 2023 then…