SAP - 7 years on

Mr Mustard looks through the over £500 spending lists that Barnet Council publish.

He came across these payments to Garfield Associates Ltd :-

Date paid	Invoice #	Payment £	Daily Rate	Days	Invoice period
05/10/2010	LBB-001	4,000	400	10	6-10 September 2010
					13-17 September 2010
05/10/2010		4,000	400		Credited incorrectly
19/10/2010	LBB-002	4,000	400	10	20-24 September 2010
					27 Sep – 1 Oct 2010
19/10/2010	LBB-003	4,000	400	10	4-8 October 2010
					11-15 October 2010
19/10/2010		-4,000			Debited
01/11/2010	LBB-004	4,000	400	10	18-22 October 2010
					25-29 October 2010
29/11/2010	LBB-005	4,000	400	10	1-5 November 2010
					8-12 November 2010
29/11/2010	LBB-006	4,000	400	10	15-19 November 2010
					22-26 November 2010
07/12/2010	LBB-007	2,500	500	5	29 Nov – 3 Dec 2010
15/12/2010	LBB-008	2,500	500	5	6 Dec - 10 Dec 2010
21/12/2010	LBB-009	2,500	500	5	13 Dec – 17 Dec 2010
18/01/2011	LBB-010	2,500	500	5	20 Dec – 24 Dec 2010
18/01/2011	LBB-011	2,000	500	4	4-7 January 2011
18/01/2011	LBB-012	2,500	500	5	10-14 January 2011
08/02/2011	LBB-013	2,500	500	5	17-21 January 2011
08/02/2011	LBB-014	2,500	500	5	24-28 January 2011
08/03/2011	LBB-015	2,500	500	5	31 Jan – 4 Feb 2011
08/03/2011	LBB-016	2,500	500	5	7 Feb – 11 Feb 2011
08/03/2011		2,500
08/03/2011	LBB-017	2,000	400	4	14 Feb – 18 Feb 2011
10/03/2011	LBB-018	2,000	400	5	21 Feb – 25 Feb 2011
25/03/2011	LBB-019	2,000	400	5	28 Feb-4 March 2011
25/03/2011	LBB-020	2,000	400	5	7 March – 11 March 2011
28/03/2011	LBB-021	2,000	400	5	14 March-18 March 2011
28/03/2011	LBB-022	2,000	400	5	21 March – 25 March 2011
31/03/2011		-2,000
		61,000

There are for the services of a Mr David Garfield who is either acting as "Lead Change Manager - SAP Optimisation" at £400 a day on some of the days and "Lead Change Manager / Assistant Project Manager - SAP Optimisation" at £500 a day on other days.

One would have thought that after running SAP for 7 years a Council employee might have got the hang of it ?

Another £5,600 was paid out in April. Nice work if you can get it.

SAP is just a glorified database with a set of rules - how hard can it be ?

Now looking at the actual payments what do you notice ?

A good start to the relationship - a double payment of £4,000 on 5 October 2010 which was corrected on 19 October 2010. It was coyly described as "credited incorrectly" - I would suggest that is "paid incorrectly".

Many of the invoices are for a week to a Friday and they are being paid on the following Monday. That is indecent haste and probably means that the necessary checking is not thorough as the earlier double payment indicates. Barnet Council really should be taking 30 days credit from the vast majority of suppliers. The effect on cashflow and borrowing would be enormous.

There was another double payment of £2,500 on 8 March 2011 which was, by the looks of it, partially clawed back in the sum of £2,000 on 31 March 2011. Does Garfield Associates owe the Council £500 ? I have no reason to doubt that Mr Garfield is an honest man and will tell the Council about this if he has not done so already.

We know that Procurement is in a mess. It is no surprise if that spreads to Accounts Payable who are dependent on Procurement to do their job properly for their own efficiency.

The final point is that Mr Garfield looks awfully like an employee and should be on PAYE.

If any reader works for HM Revenue & Customs and wants to increase the tax take of the Country then you know what to do.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard