GETTING OUT OF HAND ?

Today TWO more Council officers were suspended over the St Lawrence Undercliff investigation. That makes SEVEN in total, all of whom are having to be covered at great expense to the Council Taxpayer, or are not covered at great expense to the service they are supposed to lead - as I have found in relation to Highways queries.

All of those costs, together with the £300k currently committed to the two sets of solicitors working on the investigation, suggest that this whole enquiry is currently going to cost about £1/2 million.

When this investigation was initiated by Full Council in February the reason for it that was presented was what was contained in an initial report by an officer from Southampton City Council, which said in the Executive Summary,

"The Council acted either in ignorance or disregard of procurement rules and regulations and
the Council’s Constitution. The Council is, therefore, unable to demonstrate value for money
in using public resources. The governance arrangements exposed by the failure to comply
with statutory requirements fell short of the standards the public has a right to expect.
Procurement regulations were not complied with and, in my opinion, the appointment of HPR
was unlawful. The Council failed to secure its duty to achieve best value and the failure to
enter into a lawful and fair contractual relationship with HPR has exposed the Council to
unnecessary risk."

It seems to me that the costs of this investigation are beginning to become entirely disproportionate to the extra costs that were possibly accrued as a result of the unlawful appointment of HPR.