Our Money in Is Safe Hands or is Anything Else For That Matter?
For any new readers please read yesterday’s post first, for all others the saga continues with the response which Ferret finds absolutely unacceptable from the Town Clerk and Financial Officer of Hemsworth Town Council, Alan Draper.
The question sent to Alan Draper.
Dear Mr Draper
Thank you for your response, are you going to supply the asked for documents to support the quote and the other quotes that Jason Begg received on behalf of Hemsworth Town Council.
Regards
Here is the long fought for reply:
On 20 Apr 2022, 15:31, Clerk | Hemsworth Council < clerk@hemsworthcouncil.co.uk> wrote:
Dear *******
The council does not hold the quotes obtained by Mr Begg.
Kind regards, Alan
So here we have the Town Clerk and Financial Officer admitting they do not have:
- The specification document for the work to be paid for and to be undertaken on behalf of Hemsworth Town Council
- He does not know where that or how that specification document was advertised.
- He does not know how many companies responded
- He does not know the names of the companies
- He does not know what the actual quotes received where
- he does not know what criteria was used to select who was chosen (cheapest is not always best)
To make matters worse:
- He then referred the quote for the work to the Finance committee sight unseen or checked
- The committee were not given the full information that is required to make a proper decision
- No-one on that committee appears to have objected to the lack of information
- No-one on that committee appears to have challenged the urgency and need to make a decision.
- No proper checks or safeguards were made before thousands of pounds of our money were potentially spent.
Hemsworth Town Council’s Policy – Retention of Documents and Records
OTHER
Quotations and tenders 12 years / indefinite Statute of Limitations
HEMSWORTH TOWN COUNCIL FINANCIAL REGULATIONS 2021
11. CONTRACTS
10.1. An official order or letter shall be issued for all work, goods and services unless a formal contract is to be prepared or an official order would be inappropriate. Copies of orders shall be retained.
10. ORDERS FOR WORK, GOODS AND SERVICES
Page 14 of 18
10.2. Order books shall be controlled by the RFO.
From Hemsworth Town Council Standing orders:
20. Accounts and accounting statements
a “Proper practices” in standing orders refer to the most recent version of Governance and Accountability for Local Councils – a Practitioners’ Guide.
b All payments by the council shall be authorised, approved and paid in accordance with the law, proper practices and the council’s financial regulations
10.3. All members and officers are responsible for obtaining value for money at all times. An officer issuing an official order shall ensure as far as reasonable and practicable that the best available terms are obtained in respect of each transaction, usually by obtaining three or more quotations or estimates from appropriate suppliers, subject to any de minimis provisions in Regulation 11.1 below.
10.4. A member may not issue an official order or make any contract on behalf of the council.
10.5. The RFO shall verify the lawful nature of any proposed purchase before the issue of any order, and in the case of new or infrequent purchases or payments, the RFO shall ensure that the statutory authority shall be reported to the meeting at which the order is approved so that the minutes can record the power being used.
Hemsworth Town Council’s own regulations clearly state that quotes and tenders, must be retained for at least 12 years.
Yet Mr Draper says he has none.
This was a serious issue on many levels, but when the asbestos was found, it was outdoors, still on the vendors land, and work ceased immediately.
There was no reason normal procedures should not have swiftly started and should have applied from the start, especially when a person had been engaged, at as yet unknown cost, to oversee the project. Liaison with the Town Clerk should have applied from the very beginning to ensure that the project and subsequent additional costs were dealt with following Hemsworth Town Council regulations.
Then again nothing has been normal involving this alleged Kenyon freebie that has proven to be anything but.
The Town Clerk has broken the rules he is the custodian of:
- The Town Clerk should have presented full supporting documentation and proffered advice accordingly based on the information, and Ferret believes that advice should have simply been not to proceed until the full documentary supporting evidence was received from Mr Begg.
- That advice should have been released even without resort under the FOIA.
If this is normal practice then it explains why so many of our Township are alarmed and why so much of our money has been wasted.
Ferret wonders how and why Mr Begg became to be chosen for this role and other roles at Hemsworth Town Council?
Due Diligence and the obeying and adhering to the rules and regulations of financial matters, appears not live in Hemsworth any more, along with democracy, even at the highest level of the “paid professional” whose job it is, unless of course the decision had already been taken and the meeting was purely a formality as we have seen previously?
Ferret believes Hemsworth Town Council needs to investigate the role Mr Draper has taken in this debacle, which has breached their own rules and regulations.
Or was it another “operational decision” as with the land fencing at Fitzwilliam, taken by the Town Clerk and Responsible Financial officer to breach Hemsworth Town Council’s rules and regulations with apparent impunity.
Who actually is in charge of this council and it’s decisions?
Is it the:
- The employed staff that should be answerable to the Council
- Or is it the elected members
This community deserves better and answers…
Where Does accountability lie for financial mismanagement? Should this formally be referred to WMDC or is it the police?
They’re not fit to run a water tap, they’ve been getting away with God knows what. Roll on a new regime and full and proper investigation s
What is the point of having policies, Standing Orders, Financial Regulations, WMDC Monitoring Officer, the various statutes, best practices etc if none of it can be enforced and nobody is ever held to account?
This last year has really shocked me.
It seems that once a council is elected, it has absolutely free reign to do anything behind closed doors.
No effective governance to benefit the electorate.
Unless I’ve missed something?
The Wakefield Council’s Audit and Governance Committee met on 11 April 2022 and were presented with “The Annual Report of The Standards Committee”. This is interesting reading as, out of 22 Town and Parish complaints received in 2021, 10 related to Hemsworth Town Council. This should have rang alarm bells that something is terribly wrong – yet nothing happens!
The Chief Legal Officer/Monitoring Officer has effectively done nothing to help.
The Wakefield Council’s Standards Committee met only twice during 2021.
On 8 March 21 they approved the new Members Code of Conduct document and were told they needed to recruit 2 new Independent Persons (employed with effect from 10 June 21).
On 1 October 21 they reviewed more Code of Conduct Guidance and DBS Guidance.
On 31 March 22 they were presented with the Annual Report 2022 (the same one presented to the Audit and Governance Meeting on 11 April 22).
So the Standards Committee Meeting members are not aware of the content of any complaint made. All individual cases are managed and assessed by the Monitoring Officer’s and (sometimes) by the Standards Sub-Committee.
The Sub-Committee met 5 times during 2021 to review certain complaints made:
On 4 March 21 they were still considering complaints made in 2020.
On 8 March 21 they considered a significant number of complaints made in 2020 and 3 complaints (numbers 1,2 and 4) made in 2021. All these 2021 complaints were put on hold and never mentioned again.
On 24 June 21 they considered 3 complaints; 2 relating to 2020 and 1 complaint (number 6) raised in 2021.
On 1 October 21 they considered 5 complaints, all raised in 2021 (numbers 14,20,21,22 and 23).
On 6 December 21 they consider 3 complaints, 2 (numbers 13 and 26) raised in 2021.
The most they have recommended is that a Cllr apologises and that Councillors undergo training.
The Standards Sub-Committee have yet to meet in 2022.
It’s clear to see that all these mechanisms, put in place to protect our interests, are effectively ineffective!
Is it time to escalate concerns further Ferret?