I stood down from the Scrutiny Committee a couple of weeks ago to allow my Group colleague Deborah Gardiner our place for the final year. I'd had enough of political majority control of the committee - the antithesis of what the Tories said they would do with Scrutiny prior to this time last year.
Last night the Committee dealt with a 'call in' - the first one of the 'tickle my belly' scrutiny regime - of the Westminster Council 'communications' contract. The one that pays £137k for a Westminster consultant 3 days a week.
I see the County Press is reporting the meeting as being told that "human error was to blame for two mistakes made during the process" of letting this contract, but that "the committee decided the council had learnt from the mistakes made with the Undercliff contract".
Have they ? It seems to me that the lessons of the £2m investigation into the Undercliff - the one the police found no evidence for criminal charges - have been forgotten at the first serious hurdle.
Interestingly the Committee's recommendations last night included one,
"That all Cabinet Members be given procurement training as a matter of priority and until such time as they have attended such a session they should not be permitted to make any delegated decision in relation to the award of contracts."
that is pretty much an indictment of elements of the Council leadership. Time for a 'Westminster Enquiry '?
5 comments:
C'mon Geoff what a fix that was. Look at the Officer panel :-
Interim Director of Regeneration
Interim Head of Procurement
Deputy Head of Communications
In the case of the first two since when did the Council start letting consultants make appointments (for other consultants) on this scale. (Has anyone investigated whether these two have had previous relationships with WCC) and, with respect, to the Deputy Head of Communications who has been 'coached' for over a year by WCC it's like asking Wayne Rooney to decide whether he would like to reappoint Alex Ferguson as his manager. You are hardly going to get an objective decision.
How is this allowed to happen ?
And how was this allowed to happen with such an appalling record - look at the mess going on with the Chamber of Commerce over tourism. This was 'brokered' by the Communications team and the interim Director of Regeneration. Who has been monitoring their performance - oh, that's right the Chief Executive , Joe Duckworth. Isn't that the same Joe Duckworth who was managing the same Head of Communications when he was at Westminster City Council.......?
It all stinks.. Geoff you must refer this to the District Auditor. Where is the transparency? I've not seen the communications contract advertised! Was it?
I reckon we could do this for less in house using islanders. And Westminster have hardly made a great job of communicating. We've had PR disasters on a Heather Mills scale..
Did you see the BBC Politics Show covering the tourism debacle ? The interviewer asked the Leader Cllr Pugh if Council Officers had threatened to "crush" the Chamber of Commerce if they attempted to produce a rival Guide. Pugh failed to deny it took place. It is common knowledge that very officer was indeed WCC Head of Communications? Why are Councillors prepared to employ contractors that treat the island community with such contempt ?
C'mon Geoff.
Hear Hear, c'mon Geoff, looks like this is down to you!¬
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