One Barnet parking NSL contract failure

When it comes to parking, zero tolerance is show by the council (intolerance shurely, Ed), acting by their agents NSL, to a perceived parking contravention. Traffic wardens are required to issue a PCN to a vehicle seen in contravention. Is the same attitude displayed by the council when NSL are in contravention of the One Barnet parking enforcement contract?

On 24 May 12 it was minuted that 864 bus lane PCN had not been issued. At £130 each with an estimated 50% of the PCN paid at 50% and then 20% at full price the loss to the council would be £50,440 or one month of anticipated contract savings.

Mr Mustard went through the 2012/13 Accounts and no deductions were made from sums paid for that year and he wasn't made aware of any when he did the Audit Commission Act inspection as a member of the public.

NSL should be made to pay for any errors (and doubtless they will point the finger at Civica the software supplier).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Fourth Objection - Income targets

No pictures of fourth objection available so here is one of the fourth plinth

Mr Hughes chased Mr Mustard up for any further objections after number 3. 

Mr Mustard thought that the accountability worked in the opposite direction but this is Barnet where the opposite is often the case and public servants forget what the word servant means (not thinking of it in any menial sense, only as in "to serve"). Well the bloggers do provide an excellent and free service of information spreading, armchair auditing, critical friend, check and balance, democratic oversight, etc .

24 July 2013


Mr P Hughes
Grant Thornton
Melton St
London
NW1 2EP


Dear Mr Hughes

The London Borough of Barnet
Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2013
Fourth Notice of Objection

1. Unlawful PCN targets within parking enforcement contract.

I request a public interest notice as per section 8 of the Audit Commission Act 1998 that Barnet Council has signed and sealed a parking enforcement contract with unlawful collection targets, activity levels and incentives set within that contract contrary to law.

2. Unlawfully derived income from PCNs issued

I request a public interest notice as per section 8 of the Audit Commission Act 1998 that Barnet has unlawfully derived income from 150,150 PCNs issued with an estimated issue value of £15,122,500 for the financial year 2012/13.

I request you apply to the courts under section 17 of the Audit Commission Act 1998 to have the income derived from the £15,122,500 of PCNs issued declared illegally derived income.

I will supply documentary evidence of the unlawful targets. A copy of this Notice of Objection has been sent to Mr C Naylor and to Cllr Monroe Palmer, Baron Palmer of Child's Hill, OBE, FCA. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

Whilst he was writing Mr Mustard thought he would point out the bleeding obvious in a covering email to the external auditor, and the Chief Operating Officer, Chris Naylor, that the contract is not being adhered to by NSL and in that situation perhaps it would benefit from some auditing, just in case they weren't keeping up or Mr Mustard hadn't been clear enough.

It is clear to me that this One Barnet outsourcing contract with NSL is a complete and utter fiasco. In the limited time available to me, and given the difficulties in extracting information from the council, I have only been able to touch the surface as to what is wrong with the contract. It needs auditing (internally or by a contractor) with some thoroughness in the following areas, in particular:

-     How many PATAS evidence packs have not been produced leading to an automatically cancelled PCN and not receiving the service that has been paid for.

-     How many PCN are being pursued where the Notice to Owner was issued after the 6 month cut-off date which means the PCN must be cancelled.

-     How many PCN are being pursued where formal representations have not been responded to within 56 days which means the PCN must be cancelled.

-    Have bailiffs been instructed when a contract was not in place.

-     Have the contracted deployed hours been checked and provided or a price adjustment made for any under-deployment

-    Have unqualified Civil Enforcement Officers been employed.

-    Have 90%+ of all bus lane contraventions been captured?

-     Has all money due to the council been properly accounted for.

-    How many informal representations (between the PCN and the Notice to Owner being issued) have simply been ignored.

The problem for the council is that Mr Mustard probably knows more about the workings of the appeal process (despite gvernance banning him from asking questions about parking, parking tickets or CPZs which you won't find it is possible to do under the FOI Act - but hey this is Barnet where the impossible is possible) and the things that are going wrong in parking than almost anyone else at all in Barnet so fobbing him off isn't going to be easy or sensible. Did Mr Mustard mention that in the spirit of localism he has been keeping the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP informed? no; well he has so be careful with your next steps Barnet Council as the wrath of Eric is probably best not encountered.

Of course what the auditor will say is that there aren't targets for PCNs which is sort of true but there are other targets which can only be met by issuing a certain number of PCNs so we are in a game of chase the lady.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Why contractors don't often get sacked - maybe?

link to BBW article about DVLA

This week is Crapita week but Mr Mustard hasn't finished doing his research and he has a related blog post to write as to why local authorities and governments don't often take contractors to task.

Has Mr Mustard told you the joke, or is it, that he tells his clients? Mr Mustard has been in business for 25 years helping to sweep up the mess that supposedly commercial companies have made of their businesses. His firm acts in effect as an outsourcer to liquidators providing a service that is subject to peaks and troughs in demand and which needs considerable negotiating skills and the ability to ask people to pay up (which is a skill that the reserved British seem to find hard to master). His firm has been the recipient of a government contract in the 90's which was rarely the subject of a complaint and so it was held for several years.

What Mr Mustard tells his clients is that his firm is only average but because he always follows people who are useless then his firm looks brilliant. Clients are never sure if Mr Mustard is having a laugh but they do stick with him for years and years.

So when Mr Mustard discovered that Big Brother Watch had asked a very interesting question of the DVLA about which councils had been banned for various periods from obtaining details of car ownership he went off to see if Barnet Council were in the list. They were, on three occasions as follows:

24/3/11 to 11/5/11 - not authorised to make enquiries

27/1/12 to 26/3/12 - audit issues

19/6/12 to 24/9/12 - no contract in place

Now the parking enforcement contract with NSL started a month late on 1 May 12. One wonders if part of the reason for the one month delay was to allow time for the council to get out the pickle they had got into in the first quarter of the calendar year 2012. They weren't to know when the DVLA might lift the ban and so 1 April was a bit tight for being able to fulfil the council's presumed part of the bargain of providing access to DVLA. (Mr Mustard has about 90% of the contract, all the really interesting sections have been redacted, but from what he can see the responsibility for the DVLA link rests with the council). 

Now readers will recall that the Special Parking Account was down by £1.2m at 30 June 2012. When the interim Director of Environment, Planning & Regeneration, Pam Wharfe, who is the chosen one in the new order (otherwise known as commissioning chaos) to become the Director of Place (were there really no better candidates?), reported on the parking recovery plan to the Budget & Performance Overview & Scrutiny Committee on the evening of 25 October 2012, she didn't mention that for two of the weeks in that quarter the council had been unable to obtain details of car ownership and that must have affected the income.

This must be one of the reasons why when put in the spotlight about claiming compensation from NSL by Cllr Cooke the reply was an irrelevance about not having targets for parking ticket numbers and that "the contract had been properly managed". Did Pam not know about the lack of a contract with DVLA, especially after the Procurement Action Plan had by then been in place for a year? in which case her competency is questionable, or did she know and did she just fail to mention it as a factor which is.....well, you dear reader can make up your own mind what that is.

(Digression - Whilst we are on the subject of Pam Wharfe, Mr Mustard hears that when she took the e-learning module for Contract Management Introduction, she failed it the first time getting 3 of the 15 questions wrong. A much better score the second time, just 5 minutes later, with only one wrong answer; let's hope it wasn't for something vital.)

Now the parking enforcement contract is one of the simplest that could be imagined and it should be a simple task to highlight all of the failures of NSL but if on the client side you have a worse failing then as an Officer (employee of Barnet Council) you are going to shy away from involving legal as your own inadequacies are about to be thrust into the spotlight.

Multiply the contract up to a humongous one with Crapita and try to blame them for failure and their clever lawyers will be all over the contract looking for the client side failures, which given the general ineptitude of Barnet Council overpaid senior managers, will be easy to find, especially as under the new corporate structure it isn't entirely clear who is meant to do what and internal division and infighting will be rife.

Councillors on scrutiny panels. In future you might like to ask Directors if there are any parts of a contract which the council itself have not fulfilled 100%.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Broken Homes

www.thisislocallondon.co.uk

Procurement at Barnet Homes isn't setting the world alight although their blocks seem to suffer more than occasional fires.

It seems that Barnet Homes are just as bad as Barnet Council when it comes to procurement; they must have been getting tips from Craig Cooper, the well overpaid Commercial Director.

Barnet Homes needed a new logo a couple of years back. Here is what they ended up with:

Mr Mustard can't work out quite what it cost but it was too much whatever it was and then everything else with a logo on it had to be thrown away and done again. Why don't we get schools involved in this sort of thing? They would get a small prize for themselves, money for their school and lots of good publicity for Barnet. If commercial production is a must then rather than using some firm in Clerkenwell, called Dogstar Design, why isn't use being made of some of the hundreds of designers who work from home or from small offices in Barnet? Ask three to bid for each job and take the best idea.

Look how much money Dogstar Design have had out of Barnet Homes since 2005.

We have attached a spreadsheet setting out all invoices ever sent to Barnet Homes by Dogstar Design and payments made by Barnet Homes to Dogstar Design. We have not been able to locate details of all design services supplied by Dogstar Design prior to May 2007.

Doc. Date	Item	£	£	Text
04/04/2012	Outgoing payment		840
09/03/2012	Invoice	-840		Barnet group powerpoint template, BH letterhead
21/03/2012	Outgoing payment		4,464
23/02/2012	Invoice	-2,652		Design layout & artworking
23/02/2012	Invoice	-1,812		Design layout & artworking
07/03/2012	Outgoing payment		120
10/02/2012	Invoice	-120		RENT PAYMENT CALENDAR UPDATE 12/13
29/02/2012	Outgoing payment		1,200
31/01/2012	Invoice	-1,200		YOUR CHOICE & BG LETTERHEAD WORD TEMPLATES
24/02/2012	Incoming payment	-1,848		Refund from Dog Star for overpayment
27/02/2012	Credit memo		1,848	Refund for inv No.1322715427, Ref 000318
23/12/2011	Outgoing payment		1,848
30/11/2011	Invoice	-1,848		Logo guidelines for Barnet Grp & Your Choice
19/12/2011	Outgoing payment		2,700
21/11/2011	Invoice	-2,700		Newsletter Barnet homes AtHome Dec 2011
29/10/2011	Outgoing payment		2,880
03/10/2011	Invoice	-2,880		Barnet Homes Annual Report 2011
13/09/2011	Outgoing payment		2,652
16/08/2011	Invoice	-2,652		BARNET HOMES ATHOME SEP 2011
13/06/2011	Outgoing payment		3,624
16/05/2011	Invoice	-3,624		barnet at homes june 2011
27/04/2011	Outgoing payment		2,370
29/03/2011	Invoice	-2,370		barnet homes business plan 2011-2016
29/03/2011	Outgoing payment		1,140
07/02/2011	Invoice	-660		barnet homes trade-down leaflet
07/02/2011	Invoice	-480		barnet homes trade-down leaflet
15/03/2011	Outgoing payment		2,682
15/02/2011	Invoice	-2,682		barnet homes At Home March 2011
07/03/2011	Outgoing payment		2,400
07/02/2011	Invoice	-2,400		barnet furniture centre logo
23/02/2011	Outgoing payment		118
28/01/2011	Invoice	-118		b h rent payment calendar update 2010/11
05/01/2011	Outgoing payment		94
10/12/2010	Invoice	-94		athome posters june, sept, dec 2010
15/12/2010	Outgoing payment		2,630
16/11/2010	Invoice	-2,630		barnet homes athome december 2010
15/09/2010	Outgoing payment		2,761
19/08/2010	Invoice	-188		barnet homes AtHome sept 2010
17/08/2010	Invoice	-2,573		barnet homes AtHome sept 2010
15/06/2010	Outgoing payment		2,661
18/05/2010	Invoice	-2,661		athome june 2010
04/05/2010	Outgoing payment		94
06/04/2010	Invoice	-94		ATHOME POSTERS
19/04/2010	Outgoing payment		2,321
22/03/2010	Invoice	-2,321		Barnet Homes business plan 2010 - 2015
16/03/2010	Outgoing payment		3,596
17/02/2010	Invoice	-3,596		Barnet Homes At Home March 2010
05/03/2010	Outgoing payment		94
08/02/2010	Invoice	-94		Barnet homes leaflet update
26/02/2010	Outgoing payment		711
31/01/2010	Invoice	-711		Barnet homes leaflet update
24/02/2010	Outgoing payment		118
28/01/2010	Invoice	-118		Barnet homes rent calendar update 2010 / 2011
16/12/2009	Outgoing payment		3,450
19/11/2009	Invoice	-3,450		Barnet homes At Home December 2009
23/11/2009	Outgoing payment		598
29/10/2009	Invoice	-598		Barnet homes welcome pack leaflet update
08/09/2009	Outgoing payment		2,697
14/08/2009	Invoice	-2,697		Barnet homes At Home September 2009
19/08/2009	Outgoing payment		506
23/07/2009	Invoice	-506		Barnet homes pen re-print
13/07/2009	Outgoing payment		2,639
17/06/2009	Invoice	-2,639		Barnet homes At Home July 2009
06/07/2009	Outgoing payment		397
10/06/2009	Invoice	-397		Barnet homes assist stationary
21/05/2009	Outgoing payment		35
29/04/2009	Invoice	-35		Barnet homes business plan 2009 - 2014
20/04/2009	Outgoing payment		2,271
25/03/2009	Invoice	-2,271		bh business plan 09-14
09/04/2009	Outgoing payment		2,726
17/03/2009	Invoice	-2,726		bh at home march09
23/02/2009	Outgoing payment		115
20/01/2009	Invoice	-115		bh rent pay calender update 09/10,
04/02/2009	Outgoing payment		285
06/01/2009	Invoice	-285		bh talk 2 us leaflet amends
29/12/2008	Outgoing payment		3,479
03/12/2008	Invoice	-3,479		bh athome dec 08 dnewsletter
17/12/2008	Outgoing payment		235
21/11/2008	Invoice	-235		barnet homes christmas card 2008
16/12/2008	Outgoing payment		744
20/11/2008	Invoice	-744		tenacies leaflet design
12/11/2008	Outgoing payment		65
17/10/2008	Invoice	-65		additional costs delivery of final artwork
24/10/2008	Outgoing payment		3,490
30/09/2008	Invoice	-3,490		bh annual report and statements designs
21/10/2008	Outgoing payment		1,175
25/09/2008	Invoice	-1,175		bh business plan 2008-13 final artwork for print
18/09/2008	Outgoing payment		5,340
27/08/2008	Invoice	-705		bh get involved leaflet update
27/08/2008	Invoice	-1,974		bh annual review resident newsletter
27/08/2008	Invoice	-2,661		bh newsletter sept08 design l
22/08/2008	Outgoing payment		2,368
31/07/2008	Invoice	-2,368		bh business plan 2008-13 design
31/07/2008	Outgoing payment		2,632
04/07/2008	Invoice	-1,880		bh create logo design options
04/07/2008	Invoice	-752		bh assist logo- sub brand guidelines
08/07/2008	Outgoing payment		4,753
18/06/2008	Invoice	-4,753		bh/athome presentation design layouts
25/04/2008	Outgoing payment		2,667
31/03/2008	Invoice	-2,667		bh/athome/edition 18_
14/04/2008	Outgoing payment		106
20/03/2008	Invoice	-106		bh_rent card amends
22/02/2008	Outgoing payment		106
31/01/2008	Invoice	-106		bh/adaptions leaflet amends
08/02/2008	Outgoing payment		106
17/01/2008	Invoice	-106		bh_rent pay card
07/02/2008	Outgoing payment		129
15/01/2008	Invoice	-129		bh_update existing letterhead
11/01/2008	Outgoing payment		920
20/12/2007	Invoice	-920		bh/adaptations service leaflet design
20/12/2007	Outgoing payment		423
19/10/2007	Invoice	-423		bh/leaseholder update 5 sections of handbook
19/12/2007	Outgoing payment		1,540
30/11/2007	Invoice	-13		bh/athomes/xmas special postage to printer
30/11/2007	Invoice	-1,528		bh/athomes/xmas design edition
13/12/2007	Outgoing payment		212
19/11/2007	Invoice	-141		bh/tackling racial harrassment leaflet amends
12/10/2007	Invoice	-71		bh/help decorating leaflet amends
10/12/2007	Outgoing payment		212
16/11/2007	Invoice	-212		bh/password leaflet designed
21/11/2007	Outgoing payment		2,895
31/10/2007	Invoice	-2,613		bh/ amends and prepare 8x web ready pdf for welcome pack.
31/10/2007	Invoice	-71		bh/leaflet amends to existsing leaflet web ready pdf
31/10/2007	Invoice	-212		BH/letterhead
09/11/2007	Outgoing payment		1,087
19/10/2007	Invoice	-1,087		bh/sheltered house leaflet
07/11/2007	Outgoing payment		1,050
31/07/2007	Invoice	-945		bh/athome design 6pp repairs edition
03/10/2007	Invoice	-35		bh/ standard page create printable image
12/10/2007	Invoice	-71		bh/safe leaflet amend existing leaflet
26/10/2007	Outgoing payment		8,507
03/10/2007	Invoice	-2,585		bh/annual review
03/10/2007	Invoice	-2,291		bh/athome design
03/10/2007	Invoice	-3,631		bh/financial statement report 2007
25/10/2007	Outgoing payment		282
21/09/2007	Invoice	-282		bh/inspection poster
22/10/2007	Outgoing payment		71
21/09/2007	Invoice	-71		bh/right to buy leaflet amend leaflet
12/10/2007	Outgoing payment		282
21/09/2007	Invoice	-282		bh/self assessment covers
11/10/2007	Outgoing payment		779
19/09/2007	Invoice	-779		bh/data protect policy leaflet
10/10/2007	Outgoing payment		327
18/09/2007	Invoice	-115		bh/business chartsfor business plan
18/09/2007	Invoice	-212		bh/visit for older ppl flyer design
25/09/2007	Outgoing payment		3,711
31/08/2007	Invoice	-3,429		bh/business plan 2007-12, design
31/08/2007	Invoice	-282		bh/ posters
18/09/2007	Outgoing payment		3,437
28/08/2007	Invoice	-3,437		bh/athome/aug07 design
20/07/2007	Outgoing payment		35
26/06/2007	Invoice	-35		have your say artwork
13/07/2007	Outgoing payment		1,528
22/06/2007	Invoice	-1,528		BH/at homes_june07 design
02/07/2007	Outgoing payment		1,412
05/06/2007	Invoice	-519		BH/Have your say menu leaflet
06/06/2007	Invoice	-212		BH_Tenancy audit leaflet,
05/06/2007	Invoice	-682		BH/RP Notice board posters.
25/05/2007	Outgoing payment		1,774
01/05/2007	Invoice	-1,692		BH/staff recognition awards booklet.
01/05/2007	Invoice	-35
01/05/2007	Invoice	-47
16/04/2007	Outgoing payment		4,124
26/03/2007	Invoice	-2,291		bh athome design
26/03/2007	Invoice	-1,833		POSTERS ATHOME
13/04/2007	Outgoing payment		1,304
19/03/2007	Invoice	-141
21/03/2007	Invoice	-964
19/03/2007	Invoice	-200
05/04/2007	Outgoing payment		71
12/03/2007	Invoice	-71
23/03/2007	Outgoing payment		94
02/03/2007	Invoice	-94
23/02/2007	Outgoing payment		1,146
31/01/2007	Invoice	-1,146
12/01/2007	Outgoing payment		2,319
20/12/2006	Invoice	-2,319		bh athome design
02/01/2007	Outgoing payment		1,255
04/12/2006	Invoice	-141
04/12/2006	Invoice	-779
04/12/2006	Invoice	-335
22/12/2006	Outgoing payment		491
27/11/2006	Invoice	-491
17/11/2006	Outgoing payment		1,909
25/10/2006	Invoice	-1,909
09/11/2006	Outgoing payment		1,216
05/09/2006	Invoice	-1,216
31/10/2006	Outgoing payment		4,307
03/10/2006	Invoice	-4,151
03/10/2006	Invoice	-155
18/08/2006	Outgoing payment		519
25/07/2006	Invoice	-519
04/07/2006	Outgoing payment		5,953
13/06/2006	Invoice	-1,528
13/06/2006	Invoice	-165
13/06/2006	Invoice	-120
13/06/2006	Invoice	-4,141
05/06/2006	Outgoing payment		217
02/05/2006	Invoice	-217
21/04/2006	Outgoing payment		519
20/03/2006	Invoice	-519
18/04/2006	Outgoing payment		885
15/03/2006	Invoice	-106
15/03/2006	Invoice	-779
12/04/2006	Outgoing payment		613
22/02/2006	Invoice	-94
22/02/2006	Invoice	-519
10/04/2006	Outgoing payment		353
10/03/2006	Invoice	-353
27/03/2006	Outgoing payment		779
23/02/2006	Invoice	-779
28/02/2006	Outgoing payment		2,664
26/01/2006	Invoice	-1,577
25/01/2006	Invoice	-53
25/01/2006	Invoice	-71
25/01/2006	Invoice	-964
27/02/2006	Outgoing payment		2,664
27/02/2006	Incoming payment	-2,664
11/11/2005	Outgoing payment		3,469
11/11/2005	Incoming payment	-3,469
11/11/2005	Outgoing payment		3,469
11/10/2005	Invoice	-3,469
17/10/2005	Outgoing payment		1,528
17/10/2005	Incoming payment	-1,528
17/10/2005	Outgoing payment		1,528
16/09/2005	Invoice	-1,528
11/10/2005	Outgoing payment		746
08/09/2005	Invoice	-693
08/09/2005	Invoice	-53
	Total paid out	163,699

This looks to Mr Mustard to be another MetPro, another RM Countryside, another Iris Gardening, another case of complete lack of management; too busy with One Barnet to do their job properly.

So Dogstar Design have had £163,699 from the council. That should have been tendered for. It is most unlikely that Barnet Homes have overpaid for anything and very likely that they have paid through the nose unless they have been obtaining quotes from other designers who were always quoting higher prices. 

Another feature in common with MetPro, RM and Iris is the contractual paperwork. Here is the answer from Barnet Homes in response to Mr Mustard's FOI request for a copy of all contracts placed with Dogstar.

There has never been a contractual arrangement between Barnet Homes and Dogstar Design.

Here we go again. Mr Mustard knows that Barnet Homes is an ALMO, or Arms Length Management Organisation.

The Arms are very long

The Management is incompetent

There is insufficient Organisation

Barnet Homes is as blisteringly incompetent as Barnet Council but that isn't really surprising as the council are the ultimate owner of the homes.

Now Mr Mustard is a busy man and can't shine the spotlight everywhere at once. It's time for a new blogger, the Barnet Homes Blogger, preferably a person who actually lives in one of Barnet Home's homes and has a head for figures and a way with words. Make up a silly name, start asking questions and off you go.

How Barnet Homes has the nerve to put themselves up (or allow themselves to be put forward) for an award in 2012 Inside Housing Awards is ridiculous when they are obviously not competent and should be concentrating on improving their procedures.

They have at least backed off on booting an octogenarian out of his lifelong home thanks to the fuss kicked up in the press after a kindly neighbour raised the alarm. It shouldn't be that way. A company dealing with social housing should have some compassion and common-sense and stay out of the local papers.

Whilst we are on the subject of Dogstar they have had more public money, this time from Barnet Council itself.

Commercial Directorate - Consulting fees

			£
Dogstar	03/02/12	5000333093	8,235
Dogstar	15/02/12	5000334695	4,465
Dogstar	15/02/12	5000334701	1,540

Over-using suppliers is catching in Barnet. Someone in Homes has told someone in the unCommercial Directorate about Dogstar Design and it is doubtful that there was any meaningful competition. Suppliers are not stupid and are out to maximise their profits. They will charge what they can to gullible buyers.

Stop being so damn lazy in procurement and start vetting suppliers properly and giving some work to Barnet based companies whenever possible.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard