CAB Contract...........

[mk1]

Front page of today's Mail but they have not put in online. I hope they do. The comments section should get very interesting with shouty-man joining in.

[DRiddle]

Not seen it. Do you have a picture of it?

[hartlepool sea coalers]

 my thoughts exactly, in house investigation no wrongdoing by hbc you could,nt make it up

[Inspector Knacker]

In his statement, CAB said ".....but I have come to expect such comments  from those councillors who appear not to value the work of Hartlepool council".
Appear not to to value the work in whose opinion ?.
Just how is asking perfectly reasonable questions vexatious ?

[mk1]

[Land Phil]

Rotten Boroughs comes to mind again.

[DRiddle]

Given that it's only Wednesday, and keeping in mind The Mail is printed in Sheffield at least 24 hours before the issue date, that's a pretty swift 'investigation'.

The issue was only raised by Brash and Thompson last Thursday. . . 6 days ago.

Presumably the powers that be within HBC concluded that everything was above board within a few days of the issue being raised.

There's a simple question which wasn't answered on Thursday.

That being, were the usual contract procurement rules followed in this case?

It's a yes or a no answer.

To the general public, it very much looks as though no lessons have been learnt from the connected care/WCNE fiasco.

Another appearance in Private Eye seems certain.

[steveL]

As was always the intention, the agreement will be assigned in its entirety to Healthwatch Hartlepool intended, the Healthwatch contract has been awarded to Healthwatch Hartlepool from April 1st 2016"

Really? How can it have always been the intention to assign the contract to an organisation that has only existed for 6 weeks.

'Subject to satisfactory performance and funding being available'

Actually, I'm not that happy with a Healthwatch Manager who was the only candidate when he was given the job and one that wasn't advertised.

I'm not that happy either with him being on the sick for months claiming that he was too ill to sit at his Healthwatch desk but more than well enough to sit at his Council Leader desk two hundred yards down the road and to fly to Mexico on holiday for two weeks while he was on the sick.

And this is the guy who is going to be running the show?

I don't remember this ever being discussed at full council. It's all been done behind closed doors and while we will be told that an Officer made the decision, we all know that the man who really made the decision was Christopher Akers-Belcher.

[DRiddle]

All you really have to do here is subject this to what I call the 'hair dressing test'.

Imagine HBC were offering out a contract to provide hair dressing services to people across the town.

There are probably around 30+ different organisations across Hartlepool offering 'hair dressing services'.

Each of the 30+ organisations would be well placed to tender for the contract. They would have the facilities, experience, know how, staffing and expertise to provide the hair dressing services.

Now imagine two councillors, with no barber shop or salon to speak of, no accounts, no major track record for cutting hair were awarded the contract.

In fact, imagine if they were awarded the contract literally weeks after announcing they were 'a hair dressing service'. They had no track record to prove it, but they just said they could do it.

Imagine at this point they owned no scissors, no hair dye, no barbers chairs, no sinks, no clippers.... no nothing.

Imagine that all the other 30 hair dressing services were denied the opportunity to tender for the contract.

Imagine if they basically just rocked up at HBC and said "I could do that, please give me the £140,000 and I promise i'll do a good job regarding hair styling".

How would that look to the public across the town?

Would it look fair? Would it look transparent?

Worse still, would the CEO and senior officers within HBC be comfortable with such a situation?

[mk1]

Imagine if they basically just rocked up at HBC and said "I could do that,

You might be too young for this but this is Yosser from Boys From The Black Stuff.


Probably the only time Yosser does not 'nut' who he is talking to!

https://youtu.be/0Axy4KrmOHM?t=1m2s

[fred c]

Does anyone have a copy of the protocols under which HBC award contracts they can post on this thread ?

[steveL]

I was trying to figure out how this investigation has been completed, reported on and summarised in a Press Release in time to appear in Wednesday's copy of the Hartlepool Mail bearing in mind that the Mail is printed in Sheffield and published God knows where these days.The Press Release would have to be with the Mail by Monday at the latest which means the duration of any investigation could be measured in hours and minutes; not days.

I've got my answer now.

The Press Release was put together by Alistair Rae, the council's spin doctor and Christopher BEFORE the investigation by Peter Devlin had been completed. In fact, Devlin's investigation still hasn't been completed.

Christopher has decided what the outcome of the investigation will be and then got together with Alistair Rae to get a Press Release in The Mail  completely exonerating him as we can all read in The Mail tonight. Meanwhile, Peter Devlin is still busy carrying out the actual investigation and as the e-mail shows, he has already concluded that:  'this matter probably does not reflect well on the Council'. - that's quite a long way from complete exoneration.

Someone else has had the same thought; not surprisingly, the guy who asked the original question and who was assured of a proper investigation. Here's the e-mail he has sent to Peter Devlin:

From: Jonathan Brash
Sent: 23 March 2016 20:31
To: Peter Devlin
Cc: mark.payne; Joy Yates;
Subject: Healthwatch - Hartlepool Mail

Dear Peter, 

I am hoping you can shed light on what I have just read in today's Hartlepool Mail, specifically the pronouncement by a Council spokesperson that 'proper council processes' had been followed. I am presuming this was the same press release that also carried the leader's quote, issued on Monday evening. It alarms me greatly that such a press release was issued before your investigation was even complete. I'd be interested to know who instructed the press office to draft and release the press release, particularly ahead of your investigation being completed.

At the time that the press release went out you had not even spoken to the officer who had made the decision, something you only confirmed would be happening today in an email sent to me this morning. Even now (Wednesday evening) you have not completed your investigation, having written to me at 5:38pm today to suggest that 'discussions were ongoing', implying that you needed more time to respond and that a further report would need to be tabled to members.

So why has a council spokesperson prematurely pronounced that everything is fine? Given that the leader has used the council's PR mechanism to make a public statement (he refused to speak at the meeting) I would like to know how much political pressure, if any, was brought to bear to rush out a premature statement?

Moreover, you have communicated to me today that the process that led to this contract being awarded to an organisation with no track record of delivery, no audited accounts, no public scrutiny, no senior officer knowledge and no procurement process in line with the council's procedure for contracts over £100k was not entirely perfect, stating that: 'this matter probably does not reflect well on the Council'. So, again, why has there been a rush to say all is well when there are question marks over the process?

A council press release has been used to defend the leader of the council on a matter relating to his outside employment and to say that the process was fine, before an investigation is complete (before EVEN talking to the officer who made the decision) and with a clear suggestion that there are still questions to answer.

This is why a proper public hearing on this issue, before the contract is awarded, is desperately needed. Investigation by press release 'probably does not reflect well on the Council'.

On a personal note Peter, I know you are an officer and, indeed, a man of the highest integrity who has once again been landed in an invidious position not of your making. Please believe me when I say that none of this is a reflection on you, whom I hold in the highest regard. I merely seek the truth and wish to stand up for what is right. This decision is not right.

Best Wishes
--
Jonathan Brash


 

[fred c]

WTF do we pay the CEO £140,000 a year for, it would appear, that not only is CAB the Leader of the Council he is also The De-facto Chief Executive.

Another question for Ms Alexander to answer is, why is the HBC Press Manager issuing press releases about matters that are under investigation by the Borough Solicitor & Monitoring Officer ?

[Land Phil]

What hope is there of proper scrutiny ?
Shame and ridicule is pointless with people that have no conscience.

Would County Tees Valley police this or is it to central government ?

[fred c]

Nothing on The Mail online that i can see