£1.3m of council contract irregularities emerge between Apr 2023 and Sept 2023

Towards the end of Nov 2023, we made it known that 9 contracts above £5,000, and with a combined value of £750,000 were not on Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s contracts register. Then in early December  the Quarterly Internal Audit Update Report from the Head of East Kent Audit Partnership (page 15) made it clear from a sample of forty contracts, nineteen contracts  were not on the contracts register, which breaches the Council’s contract standing orders and the Transparency Code 2015.

The Council’s constitution, it’s legal framework and by which it is bound, states at Part 10 – page 10/22:

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

The Transparency Code 2015 also says:

Local authorities must also publish details of any contract, commissioned activity, purchase order, framework agreement and any other legally enforceable agreement with a value that exceeds £5,000

The 19 contracts with companies whose names to date have not been revealed, have contracts with our council for a combined value of more than £611,000. These 19 companies, named below, were not on the register between April 2023 to Sept 2023, so spanning both the old administration led by former leader Cllr David Monk (Con) and the new leader of the Council, Cllr Jim Martin (Green)

So when combined with the other nine contracts we mentioned in late Nov 2023, the total value of contracts taken from a sample of forty nine, twenty eight of them, or 57%, were not on the contracts register, and their combined value was more than £1.3m. And do remember these are contracts let between Apr 2023 and Sept 2023 so spanning both Cllr Monk’s old administration and  Cllr Jim Martin’s new administration.

What officers and Cllrs do not seem to understand, is that failing to comply with the Council’s Contract Standing Orders – part of their constitution, and the Transparency Code 2015, is they leave themselves open to the plausible suspicion of wrongdoing. We are talking about £1.3m pounds of public contracts not visible to those who are allowed to see them, you the residents. You the local council tax payer. 

Only when officers and Cllrs wake up and smell the coffee that compliance is the best solution for everyone, will they dispel the possibility that anything potentially nefarious is going on. So we ask them to get it right for their sake, and the sake of all residents in our wonderful district.  Until they eradicate these irregularities we should all remain skeptical and remember the Peter Principle is alive and well at Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

The Shepway Vox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime