MetPro - Licence to Bill

There has certainly been a spy movie in the MetPro drama but no Bond, well no performance or surety Bond as there wasn't a Contract to support. Plenty of actors though pretending to be licensed security guards. MetPro must have thought that they had won Thunderball when they submitted invalid invoices and they were paid. Lots of senior officers at Barnet Council probably now trying to beat The Living Daylights out of each other in order that Tomorrow's excessive pay packet Never Dies.

There has also been a disaster movie - in the Accounts Payable department which will henceforth be known as Casino Royale as its a gamble as to what will happen when an invoice is submitted ( that is probably not true; I expect that 100% get paid; they say Never Say Never Again to the thought of not paying - the remittance advice which goes with each payment is probably headed From Barnet with Love )

Let us have a look at what Barnet Council think a valid invoice looks like as below is one they have paid. Think of it as A View To A Bill ( sorry!)

click to enlarge

So what might be missing from this invoice ? the red shading is rightly there to cover the bank details which Barnet Council redact to prevent the risk of fraud - there are evidently a load of stand-up comedians at Barnet Council - so the Talent & Performance Manager is doing something to earn his keep - the goings on at Barnet Council are a performance and a half. I digress - back to the joke - how Mr Mustard laughed until he remembered that it was his money that Barnet Council chuck around with gay abandon - TO PREVENT FRAUD - you have already been defrauded Barnet Council. Your name isn't even on this invoice which is a basic requirement of Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs Service ( not Secret at all - the requirements for a valid vat invoice are on the revenue & customs website for all to see ) and Mr Mustard cannot see a VAT number either - it must have been For Your Eyes Only - so VAT should simply not have been paid until a valid VAT number was supplied and the invoice checked against the Contract - ah, that's Mission Impossible isn't it. What a Carry On ( Carry On Regardless of course )

Mr Mustard is amazed at the administrative burden that they have created for themselves by having someone write on every invoice the words "Shopping Cart No." ( Mr Mustard now has visions of Councillors and Officers in a huge trolley dash for goods and services, just chucking them in any old how, grabbing supplies off the shelf in a hurry and not checking what they are for - oh, and in this trolley dash nothing is free sadly ) and the number itself and then what looks like "u/Order number" but he can't be sure as if you remember getting lines at school by the time you wrote line 100 your hand had gone numb and your writing was terrible - brains have also gone a bit numb at Barnet Council - and then the number itself and then "G/receipt number" and then the number itself. The Chief Finance Officer is paid £1,000 a day. Is this the most efficient system one can get for £1,000 a day ? - you must be joking - another stand-up comedian at NLBP.

Mr Mustard has just checked the Companies House website for company number 07491321 and on 2 June 2011 MetPro Emergency Response Ltd changed its name to Evolution Emergency Response Ltd. Well they were not going to get any nice juicy Council Contracts ( or arrangements ) under the old name now were they ?

So the Audit Report for the meeting of 16 June 2011, the next production of Barnet Council which Mr Mustard thinks will be full of drama - he hopes to be able to buy a ticket ( who bought what for whom at the Council to get this nice little MetPro earner off the ground is a question that may yet come to light ) but he doesn't take a Quantum of Solace from the Council's assurances that things can only get better. Well they certainly couldn't get any worse. Except that they will if OneBarnet keeps on going.

Remember Barnet Council, The Bloggers are Watching

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard