Yet More Contract Irregularities at Folkestone & Hythe District Council

Once again, there are issues with Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Contracts Register (17/10/22) (Quelle surprise).

The Council’s Constitution at Part 10 which sets out the Financial Procedure Rules, the Contract Standing Orders and Auditing the Council states at Part 10/22

That all contracts of a value of £5,000 or more are included on the Council’s Contract Register.

However, between 1 April – 31 August 2022 (latest data available) it shows that 29 contractors are not on the register and have received £377,254 in payments.

We have only looked at contracts of the value of £5,000 (net) and £9,999 (net); with VAT these rise to £6,000 –  £11,999.

In the period 1 April to 31 Aug 2022, the number of contractors who received payments between £6,000 and £11,999 was ninety two. These 92 received £1,699,502.

Of these ninety two (92) contractors, twenty nine (29) of them are not on the contracts register. This is equivalent to 31.5% of contractors being paid, but not being on the contracts register. The amount they were paid – £377,254 – represents 22% of all payments made between 1 Apr – 31 Aug 2022.

It is clear there are still a lack of internal controls regarding contracts being placed on the contract register. Such ongoing failures by Folkestone & Hythe District Council causes reputational damage and the repercussions of this damage maybe far reaching.

These payments can be signed off by a single council officer and is designated as the “Responsible Officer“.

The constitution states at Part 10

A Responsible Officer’s duties in respect of procurement are to ensure:

That all contracts of a value of £5,000 or more are included on the Council’s Contract Register;

Part 10 goes onto say:

It is a disciplinary offence to fail to comply with these Contract Standing Orders and the Council’s Procurement Guide. All employees have a duty to report any suspected or actual breaches of the Contract Standing Orders to the S151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer.

But of course, the Responsible Officer is hardly going to inform the s151 Officer (Charlotte Spendley) and the Monitoring Officer (Amandeep Khroud), they’ve failed to comply with the Contract Standing Orders

Four officers either resigned, or walked away with a settlement agreement, due to non-compliance with Part 10 of the constitution, and even after they’ve gone the issue still continues. Surely, if the council wish to avoid the charge of hypocrisy, more people must be moved on due to the continuing failures of compliance with the contract standing orders. But rest assured that won’t be happening, meaning the incompetence of responsible officers with the permission to issue these contracts, will remain in place.

It is not rocket science to ensure ALL contracts between £5,000 and £9,999 go on the contract register, as is required. We hope that when we look at this issue again in November 2022, the matter will be resolved, but we’d advise you don’t hold your breath.

NB: The companies named in the chart above is not intended to suggest or imply that they have engaged in illegal or improper conduct.

The Shepway Vox Team

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