The costly indecision that led to Liverpool Council adding millions to its energy bill can be traced back over four years.
The Mazars Accountants report into the mishandling of the electricity renewal has set out a series of key dates showing when decisions were made in light of the agreement with Scottish Power. The damaging assessment included a timeline that showed how approval was first given to commence energy procurement with Scottish Power in January 2018.
Owing to delays, the agreement began on June 1 that year. In September 2019, a briefing note was sent from the council’s energy and carbon manager to the assistant director of corporate finance at Liverpool Council stating how renewal of the authority’s electricity contract earlier that year “resulted in increased cost due to an extended evaluation period, market rises and out of contract rates” and a “system ready for change”.
