Princes Parade: Financial mismanagement of Faithful & Gould contract
Updated 6 March @ 07:40am According to the Council’s procurement guide under Value for Money it states: Value for money is a balance of quality, price and delivery and [...]
Finance
Incompetence: Power without accountablity
Purchase Orders (POs) are either the prevention of all evil, or the creation of all evil in local government, and elsewhere. At Folkestone & Hythe District Council, they [...]
Interim Chief Finance Officer likely to cost minimum of £104,000
According to Cllr Jackie Meade‘s quick back of the fag packet calculation, at the Personnel Committee on the 2 Feb, an interim s151 officer was £100,000. A s151 [...]
Bruising reports remind Council’s Statutory Officers of contract & financial irregularities as a major issue as council face £18.5m deficit
They are without doubt, three remarkable, wise women. Each is able, each is a professional, and each is full of “intent, a clear intent” to instill compliance of [...]
Council failing to publish the notice explaining why the audited accounts for 2021/22 have not been published
Folkestone & Hythe District Council are in breach of the law again, but neither of the two statutory officers, Charlotte Spendley -s151 officer, responsible for the money [...]
Holidays & Hypocrisy
On the 1 August 2022, the public were supposed to have been allowed to inspect Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s accounts, as per s26 of the Local Audit & [...]
More Financial Irregularities at the Council
It took two hours and four minutes before Cllr Lesley Whybrow (Green) Cabinet Member for the Environment pointed out that the s151 Officer, – Charlotte Spendley [...]
Otterpool Park Update: We Name Developers for Phase One
Exclusive Updated: 26/09/22 @16:43 Back in July when the sun was warm, skies were clear and talk of a drought was sweeping its way across the nation’s media, we [...]
Part 2: Your Rights to Inspect the Council’s Accounts
Following on from Part 1 yesterday, if after inspecting the accounts and asking questions you are concerned about something in the accounts, you may wish to object to the [...]
Part 1: Your Rights to Inspect the Council’s Accounts
In the days to come the council will open their accounts for inspection to you the residents of the district. As a local resident you have legal rights to inspect, ask [...]
Council reluctant to place reports about financial and contract irregularities into the public domain.
Updated 26/10/22 @19:30 Sometimes, just sometimes, we do feel for Cllrs who try their best, but find themselves unsupported by other Cllrs who sit on the same committee. [...]
All four suspended officers have now left the Council
Updated 15/09/22 @21:37 So it has come to pass, after two and half months since we published the fact that four Folkestone & Hythe District Council officers; who were [...]
Kent County Council loaned £20m to authority now under investigation due to ‘exceptional’ debt
During the financial year 1 Apr 2021 & 31 Mar 2022, Kent County Council (KCC) lent £20m to Thurrock Council which is now under investigation due to its “exceptional [...]
Council whistleblower vindicated over contract irregularities
In a guest post back in June 2022, a Council Officer whistleblower claimed there was a lack of governance and internal controls within Folkestone & Hythe District [...]
And yet more contract irregularities at our Council
And yet again it happens. Three further contracts have been let which are in clear breach of Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Contract Standing Orders (CSOs). [...]
Another financial irregularity at the council
Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s constitution describes how they operate, makes sure they perform well, and are transparent. The constitution is the [...]
Council hiding seven years worth of credit card financial payments.
Seven years Folkestone & Hythe District Council have hidden, and failed to publish financial data for their Government Procurement Cards (read credit card), in clear [...]
Council accidentally release Covid Grant data
Curiosity killed the cat – Anon Honestly you would have thought they’d learnt by now, but no. Folkestone & Hythe District Council have committed another faux [...]
Council misleading residents about Cllrs allowances and expenses again.
On June the 12th we published the allowances of all Folkestone & Hythe District Cllrs for the financial year 2020/21. The Council are omitting the fact, that three Cllrs [...]
Cllrs claim more allowances in 2020/21 than 2019/20
In the 2020/21 financial year, when Covid hit, when all Folkestone & Hythe District Councillors couldn’t travel to conferences and claim subsistence and other [...]
FHDC look set to have highest Council Tax in Kent for eighteenth year in a row
On the 24 February 2021, Report A/20/08 will go before Folkestone & Hythe District Council Full Council at 7pm. This report concludes the budget setting process for [...]
The kitchen may be silent but the books are getting cooked
Updated Jan 21 2021 @ 13.05 For an accounting sleight of hand that elevates end-of-year accounts into a Booker Prize contender for fiction, look no further than those filed [...]
Part 1: Are Kent County Council Finances in Safe Hands?
Zena Cooke (pictured) is probably a woman you have never heard of. There is no need for you to have ever heard of her. She is Kent County Council’s (KCC) Director of [...]
Dunning Kruger Effect Alive And Well At Folkestone & Hythe District Council
If you’ve ever dealt with someone whose performance stinks, and they’re not only clueless that their performance stinks but they’re confident that their performance is [...]