Part 42: More financial and contract irregularities

Just three days ago, Folkestone & Hythe District Council were celebrating the fact that last year they had begun making the district’s social housing stock more energy efficient, via a press release.

The first wave of the work was undertaken Ross House – a block of 16 flats in Folkestone – which has undergone a significant retrofit as part of a wider programme of improving the district’s council homes.

The company which undertook this work, was Jenner (Contractors) Ltd, according to the Council’s contract register. In fact in the financial year 2022/23; which begins on 1 April, and ends on the 31 March for the Council, Jenner’s were awarded two contracts, as can be seen below. 

The contracts were for:

1 Installation of Scooter Stores at Bradfoord Court, Folkestone

2 Heat Pumps and Associated Works at Ross House, Folkestone

The combined value of the awarded contracts (net) was £1,082,054 (net)

The Council’s purchase order data makes it clear just £865,911 (net) has been raised for the financial year 2022/23. There are for certain more purchase orders to come, as the work on Ross House didn’t finish until Mat/Jun 2023.

When one then contrasts this data and the awarded value for the contracts one can see Jenner’s have been paid £1,263,845 in the 2022/23 financial year, which is an irregularity of £181,791 against the awarded value of the contract and an irregularity of £397,934 against the purchase order data.

There will undoubtedly be more payments to come on both contracts, as the work on these two contracts did not end until May/June, so the financial irregularities stated above will no doubt be higher.

Now as we said in our last blog on financial and contract irregularities on the 3 June, we will be bringing forward more evidence based blogs, showing further financial irregularities on other contracts as well. 

The Council’s Corporate Director for overseeing these contracts, or rather where the buck stops, is with Andy (Teflon) Blaszkowicz  (pictured). It was four people working under him who left the building for financial and contract irregularities on previous contracts we mentioned. We now understand, since then the former Assets & Development Lead left the building in Feb 2023. 

We cannot tell you how much Andy earned in 2022/23, as the Council have failed to publish their accounts by the statutory deadline of 31 May.  All we can say is, it appears failure to oversee these contracts has been rewarded handsomely given he earned £109,920 in 2021/22 (including fees and allowances).

Once again, the evidence shows that during 2022/23, the internal controls over contracts and finances were not robust enough to pick up these ongoing irregularities. We’ll leave you to make up your own mind why that might be.

The inclusion of a company in this blogpost is not intended to suggest or imply that they have engaged in illegal or improper conduct. 

The Shepway Vox Team 

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