This is a guest post
Yesterday, I let it be known Folkestone & Hythe District Council had made 650 retrospective purchase orders (RPO) in 2021/22, with a total value of £4m. All this information came directly from the Council, while the accounts were open for public inspection.
Of those 650 RPOs, 438 of them do not have a supplier name when data matched against the Council’s published purchase order data. Nor do these 438 retrospective purchase orders appear on the Council’s published purchase order data.
A purchase order is a legally binding document only once it has been accepted by both parties. It is effectively a contract between the buyer and seller for goods for the price and terms agreed within.
However, the Council has allowed goods and services to be supplied to them without a purchase order. Then the supplier of the goods and services has invoiced them for £x, then the Council has raised a retrospective purchase order with the price fitting what the supplier is asking. So the contract only comes into being after the goods and services have been supplied. This behaviour by the Council has created the plausible suspicion of wrongdoing, as a responsible officer could inflate the invoice; which generates room for kickbacks, or fraud.
Now Cllr Lesley Whybrow has made it known that she found one retrospective purchase order, relating to BAM Construction, who were going to build out the Leisure Centre on Princes Parade. She posted about this in the Friends of Princes Parade Facebook page on the 14 Feb 2023 and mentions three purchase orders.
Now reading this, there is no mention of a, or any retrospective purchase orders in the statement she posted on the 14 Feb 2023.
Also, both of the purchase orders mentioned by Cllr Whybrow fall outside of the 2021/22 data, as that runs from 1 April 2021, to 31 March 2022.
I willingly accept if Cllr Whybrow says she did something, then she did it, even if her publicly available statement makes no mention of a retrospective purchase order.
What I, like Cllr Whybrow, cannot know or say, is, if any of the 438 unnamed suppliers for the retrospective purchase orders are linked to Princes Parade, Otterpool Park or any other project the Council is running.
In fact, all I can say with certainty is, there were very lax financial internal controls during 2021/22. At that time, the s151 officer was Charlotte Spendley, who left the Council on 17 March 2023. In 2021/22 her responsibilities were:
ensuring that appropriate advice is given on all financial matters, for keeping proper financial records and accounts, and for maintaining an effective system of internal financial control.
The evidence is unassailable, the systems of internal financial control; which she was responsible for, were NOT effective.
I know training for all officers on contract standing orders began on 12 Jan 2023. However, as a Council officer made very clear in a guest post on 21 March
This “training” though has failed to work. It is still not valued by persons within the organization, who continue to find successful workarounds two months after the training began.
Given this is the second time retrospective purchase orders have been a significant council issue (see page 9), how long before it will be again, given what the well placed council officer has said?
So what’s the solution?
Well, somebody has to be made an example of. It really is that simple. Until this happens, officers will continue to believe there are no consequences for such lax financial behaviour; which creates the plausible suspcion of wrongdoing, and causes reputational damage to our council.
Whether the Chief Executive of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Dr Susan Priest, has the will to enact change, and bring about the solutions necessary to save the council from further reputational damage, only time will tell.
VOTE RYLANDS
FOLKESTONE CENTRAL
MAY 4
