A senior opposition member said it feels increasingly like “clowns have taken over the town hall” in the wake of the latest contract travails that have befallen Liverpool Council.
It was revealed last week that the local authority was just hours away from yet another expensive contract mix-up as it ran dangerously close to letting its vital HR and payroll deal run out. A meeting of the cabinet last week was told members were only informed of the impending end to the vital terms just days before it was due to expire.
Cllr Jane Corbett, deputy mayor, said she was only informed of the need to secure a new deal nine days before the contract with Oracle Corporation UK ran out, with the cabinet signing off on a new deal at the eleventh hour on Friday morning. Had this not been achieved, a 3% uplift would have been applied by Oracle, costing the council an extra £15,000.
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The commissioners appointed to oversee the council said the situation “exemplifies the systemic issues that must be addressed across the organisation” and described the lateness in agreeing a new contract as “unacceptable”. Mike Cunningham’s team added that “this cannot continue to be a feature of the council and the way it operates. Procurement was a matter flagged in the Caller report and urgent progress is now needed to ensure that all accountable officers in directorates, as well as in the corporate centre, understand and deliver their obligations to define their commissioning/purchasing requirements, manage their contracts and plan for competitive tender processes.”
The move has now come in for criticism by a senior opposition councillor. Cllr Andrew Makinson, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said he felt no lessons had been learned from previous failings.
He said: “It beggars belief that this Labour council can find itself 24 hours from another major contract disaster. Paying your staff and paying your bills are the two most basic things in any organisation.
“If Liverpool Council can't get these right, how can they be trusted to provide services for half a million people? Clearly no lessons have been learnt from last year’s failure to notice that the city’s gas contract auto-renewed, and their seven months dithering to sign an electricity contract.
“It increasingly feels like clowns have taken over the Town Hall.” Council chief executive Tony Reeves, who is facing increased pressure over the authority’s energy contract mess, apologised to cabinet members last week and said he would provide a report to members at their next meeting in June to assure them this situation would not occur again.
He added that every contract was being checked to ensure there were “no more issues that will blow up.” In a statement, a Liverpool Council spokesperson said: “We fully support the comments from the Commissioners and are taking steps to address the issues highlighted.
"This is a key part of our improvement journey with all contracts being reviewed to make sure there is a clear process for ensuring decisions are made in a planned and timely fashion.”
