A vanishing contract and more data manipulation by Folkestone & Hythe District Council

Vanish is something you use on clothes. It is not something you expect to be used on the Council’s contract register. But that is precisely what has happened

How do you make a contract with an estimated value of £12,660 vanish?

That’s a question for Folkestone & Hythe District Council, who have made a contract with Clifford Carpentry & Interiors vanish. Yes vanish.

On the 27 June we published the blog post

Alastair Clifford suspended from Folkestone & Hythe District Council

This in short showed contract irregularities which showed – with evidence that Alastair Clifford the Chief Officer for Operations at the Council had let contracts to his brother. Alastair has since returned to work. But take a look at the two images below. In one there are four contracts and in the second there are three contracts.  The highest value contract awarded to Clifford Carpentry & Interiors on the 29/04/2019 for a value of £12,660 for three days work has vanished.

Both images were taken from the exact same source, four months apart. The only people who can change this data are officers of Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

So how did it happen that a contract vanished from the Contracts register?

But it doesn’t stop there. Once again Folkestone & Hythe District Council have been manipulating more awarded dates on contracts on the contract register. If one looks at the blog post More bent council contracts? You decide, posted on May 15 2022, it’s clear Buckles Solicitors were awarded the stopping up contract for Princes Parade on the 26/01/22. However, fast forward to the 3 Sept 2022 and the same image shows the awarded date has been amended to 02/09/21. Oh an the end date has changed from the 29/10/21 to 20/03/22. Again, these changes could have only been undertaken by a Folkestone & Hythe District Council officer.

Now let’s not forget we’ve already blogged about this issue in our post titled

Are the Council utterly incompetent, or are they now acting criminally?

And yet time and again we find more evidence of the deliberate manipulation of the contracts register by our Council.

And to drive the point home, we give a further two examples below, which show the Council have changed the contracts register with intent to manipulate the awarded dates. Make no mistake this is happening on an industrial scale.

On the April 1 2022, Adept Power Solutions Ltd were awarded a contract to the estimated value of £3,065, spread across three years. The contract started on 02/09/21, and was awarded on 01/04/22. However, fast forward to Sept 2022 and one can see the awarded date has been changed and now reads 21/06/21. This is not an accident.

Then there is CDW Ltd, who were awarded a contract on the 2 Oct 2023, yes you read that correctly, 2 Oct 2023, with an estimated value of £312,984. The contract begun on the 1 Oct 2021, and is for 36 months. However, the awarded date of course has been changed by a Folkestone & Hythe District Council employee to 26/08/2021. Again this NOT an accident.

So apart from the question, is it utter incompetence or criminal behavior, one has to seriously consider the fact, what else are the Council is manipulating to fit their narrative; when another one has been true for years and months in many, many cases?

If they are prepared to manipulate information at this level, are the Council cooking the books and manipulating data in them too?

And while we mention the accounts, the very fact they have not been open for public inspection one month and four days after the due date, we ask you, the residents and the Council – Is this evidence of the Council’s management inability to oversee the preparation of the financial statements on time?

These are fair questions, but one’s which the Council will probably not respond to.

We also note that publicly not one of our 30 elected Councillors, who are the Guardians of the public purse, is asking any questions. Are they afraid to rock the boat?

But that aside, the Council’s behaviour  begs the following questions (and probably more):

What other data are they, or have they manipulated?

Now they have a taste, where will they stop?

Are the Council cooking the books given what is evidencable about data manipulation?

Is there a “pervasive lack of trust” between the Council and its residents?

Given contracts have vanished, and there has been industrial scale manipulation of data by our Council, is it any wonder anybody might come to believe the Council are acting criminally, and appear to be above the law?

As always we’ll leave you to decide that.

NB The inclusion of the companies mentioned in this blog post is not intended to suggest or imply that they have engaged in illegal or improper conduct.

The Shepway Vox Team

Being Voxatious is NOT a Crime