Procurement Failures Exposed—Third Investigation into FHDC Reveals £380k in Unexplained Public Spending

Missed the earlier reports? Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of our ongoing investigation into FHDC’s procurement practices.

The financial discrepancies at Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) are no longer isolated incidents—they are accumulating into what increasingly looks like a systemic collapse of procurement oversight. This is the third part of an ongoing investigation into FHDC’s procurement woes. In our previous report, we revealed contract and payment inconsistencies totalling £305,000. Now, with new evidence from the 2024/25 financial year, that figure has surged to £380,654—and all signs suggest we are still far from reaching the bottom of this barrel.

This latest batch of examples once again exposes a worrying mismatch between the values of publicly recorded contracts and the actual amounts paid to suppliers—raising urgent questions about transparency, legal compliance, and financial control within the authority.

Civica Election Services Ltd: £40,117 Discrepancy

According to FHDC’s official contract register, Civica Election Services Ltd was awarded three contracts in 2024/25, totalling £185,129 net, or £222,154.80 gross after VAT.

Yet the council’s own payment data shows that Civica received £262,272 gross—an unaccounted difference of £40,117.20. No variation orders have been published. No explanations have been offered. And the gap remains unexplained in any formal documentation.

L W Burt Ltd: £23,617 in Unexplained Payments

In the same financial year, L W Burt Ltd was awarded a single contract valued at £5,500 net or £6,600 gross. However, payment records show the company received £30,217 gross—a discrepancy of £23,617. That’s more than four times the recorded contract value.

Where did the additional funds come from? Under what authority were they paid? And why has no procurement variation been disclosed?

Local Partnerships LLP: £11,920 Gap

Local Partnerships, a consultancy part-owned by HM Treasury and the Local Government Association, was awarded a contract worth £30,000 net, or £36,000 gross.

However, the council’s published payment data shows they received £47,920, creating a further discrepancy of £11,920. Once again, no accompanying documentation has been released to justify this additional expenditure.

A Pattern Too Consistent to Ignore

When we add these three latest cases—£40,117, £23,617, and £11,920—to the previous total of £305,000, the cumulative sum of financial irregularities now stands at £380,654.

And this is still not the full picture. More cases are under review, and based on the pattern so far, it is increasingly likely that total unexplained or off-register payments will exceed £500,000—half a million pounds of public money, distributed without transparent contractual backing.

A Crisis of Governance

This is not a procedural error. It is not a spreadsheet typo. It is the clear breakdown of procurement governance. Despite bold statements in recent official reports—one of which claims the Council’s procurement practices “continue to uphold the highest standards of legality, transparency, and value for money“—the figures tell a very different story.

What we are witnessing is the erosion of public trust, and it is being driven not by speculation, but by the council’s own published data. That data paints a picture of an organisation either unable or unwilling to control how public money is committed, recorded, and spent.

Accountability Deferred

The fact that no senior officer has been held publicly accountable for this cascade of inconsistencies is troubling in itself. The Chief Executive—whose tenure dates back to April 2018—remains in post, despite having presided over eight years of what can now be described as procurement dysfunction.

Statutory officers, including the Monitoring Officer and the Chief Finance Officer, are legally responsible for upholding governance standards. And yet, these irregularities persist year after year, report after report.

More to Come

These latest revelations are not the end of the road. Further investigations into 2024/25 payment records are ongoing, and additional anomalies are already coming to light. The sum may rise dramatically in the coming weeks.

But one thing is already certain: Folkestone & Hythe District Council has a procurement crisis on its hands. It is time for elected members—and regulators—to act before more public money vanishes into the shadows.

The Shepway Vox Team

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