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| Somehow, Mr Mustard has never been here. |
Barnet Council have not been to this restaurant either because they don't know about Rules.
There is a little known rule at Barnet Council that no supplier should be more than 25% of the turnover of any supplier so that, as the current Mayor Brian Schama remarked at a meeting which was receiving the report of the procurement task & finish group (or some other ruddy meeting), no supplier becomes dependent upon the council for its survival (the mayor used to be a big time Director so understands about supplier dependency; now he plants trees and cuts ribbons).
Look at this oh so wrong email
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| It is pointless redacting information already given to me by the council |
So we have an interim parking manager, not even a permanent member of staff, fretting about the staff of a supplier. Well Mr Dolan what you should really have been worrying about was the interests of council tax payers and whether or not you were breaching council procedures on procurement rather than RM Countryside. Why were they put first?
We can't ask Mr Dolan if anyone ever told him what the procurement rules were as he only stayed from August 2010 to May 2012 (far too short a time for anyone to do a proper induction) and is now to be found at Peterborough City Council where he is the Interim Parking Manager (will any of these interims ever get a proper job?).
Talking of interim parking managers look at this lovely reference for Mick:
“Michael was taken on to plug a short term gap but has proved so
useful that we have not only extended his contract but broadened the
scope of his role to harness his experience. He is keeping a raft of
projects moving along, seeking advice as necessary and reporting back
clearly and concisely at key stages. I have no hesitation in
recommending his work, and am happy to elaborate where necessary”
June 4, 2011
Who could John M be? Yes, you guessed it, our old friend John McArdle who used to work for NCP before he came to Barnet Council and is now to be found working as a consultant at NSL Ltd whose name used to be NCP Services Ltd.
Where did Mick work from April to July 06 as a Divisional Director - yes, you guessed it, NCP Services Ltd.
I do hope that he didn't have anything to do with the award of the parking contract to NSL Ltd as this would just be too much of a co-incidence.
Did any other supplier have any realistic chance of getting the contract? Would they have done a worse job? Judging from what Mr Mustard has seen so far, no.
Yours frugally
Mr Mustard
This very serious issue of the failure of Barnet Council to manage the risk from conflict of interest arising from just such a situation has been reported by me on endless occasions to the internal audit committee and to the external auditors. Nothing is done. It is quite simply scandalous. The last time I raised the matter, with reference to the parking contract, the external auditor simply refused to respond. Residents are entitled to draw their own conclusions.
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