Temporary overload

Mr Mustard took too many clothes for his 4 day trip in the Ardennes

Barnet Council is over-burdened with consultants, interims, town hall tax dodgers, agency staff (largely through Hays) and temporary staff of every description. Managing an organisation of 3,000 when a third of them are not part of permanent teams is a ridiculous way of going on. When you start a new job it takes weeks or months to find your way around, get to know who is who in the organisation, where everything is, what procedures are, even what the council does, never mind becoming part of a team that gells together.

Mr Mustard is not a football fan (although he has been to a Barnet FC game) but he thought he would compare Barnet Council as a team to whoever was top of the premiership when he started this posting which turned out to be Chelsea (Mr Mustard had no idea). Their squad of 25 has averaged 90 games apiece. Not got nine players on temporary loan have they? (if they have Mr Mustard wouldn't know).

Now let us look at Barnet Council squad numbers which Mr Mustard obtained under the FOI legislation and very useful it is too. As it happens the council now publish staff numbers in the quarterly performance reviews of each directorate.

Directorate	Hays	Casual	Both	Estab.	%
Adult Social Care	70	10	80	318	25%
Children's Service	100	330	430	996	43%
Chief Executives Service	35	4	39	401	10%
Commercial Service	41	0	41	138	30%
Corporate Governance	19	2	21	81	26%
Deputy Chief Executive Service	38	8	46	210	22%
Environment Planning and Regeneration	162	85	247	869	28%
Totals	465	439	904	3,013	30%

That is an awful lot of temporary help. Some departments are almost exclusively run by temps. Blue badges is one of them where Mr Mustard is informed that there is only one permanent employee who isn't even full time and so one isn't too surprised when you hear of the delays in renewing a blue badge. It takes months for a new employee to become comfortable in a new role and for a team of workers to gel. Wheover designed this policy which is intended to minimise redundancy pay when the huge One Barnet changes occur has not factored into the equation the lower productivity that the average temp will have compared to an average employee, the extra cost of employing temps and the lack of team spirit which, although hard to measure, makes all the difference when a department is under pressure.

Contrast this with Chelsea FC

Squad member	Position	Nationality	Played
1. Petr Cech	Goalkeeper	Czech	260
2. Branislav Ivanovic	Defender	Serbian	111
3. Ashley Cole	Defender	English	185
4. David Luiz	Defender	Brazilian	35
5. Michael Essien	Midfielder	Ghanaian	163
7. Ramires	Midfielder	Brazilian	62
8. Frank Lampard	Midfielder	English	378
9. Fernando Torres	Forward	Spanish	50
10. Juan Mata	Forward	Spanish	37
11. Emboaba Oscar	Midfielder	Brazilian	2
12. Mikel	Midfielder	Nigerian	164
15. Florent Malouda	Midfielder	French	149
16. Raul Meireles	Midfielder	Portuguese	31
17. Eden Hazard	Midfielder	Belgian	4
19. Paulo Ferreira	Defender	Portuguese	134
21. Marko Marin	Midfielder	German	0
22. Ross Turnbull	Goalkeeper	English	4
23. Daniel Sturridge	Forward	English	58
24. Gary Cahill	Defender	English	12
26. John Terry	Defender	English	374
28. Cesar Azpilicueta	Defender	Spanish	0
30. Yossi Benayoun	Midfielder	Israeli	8
34. Ryan Bertrand	Defender	English	11
35. Lucas Piazon	Midfielder	Brazilian	0
40. Henrique Hilario	Goalkeeper	Portuguese	20
Total matches played			2,252
Average			90

Now stop and think. Chelsea are (or at least were) top of the league and have a fairly stable workforce (that is what players are)  and they score goals.

Barnet Council chop and change their team all of the time and couldn't hit a barn door most of the time.

Perhaps the Barnet Council high percentage of temporary help policy is the wrong one?

The other strange point is the use of 439 casuals who are on the Barnet Council payroll. The Hays contract becomes a contract with Comensura next month and so is coming to an end but when it was signed up for in February 2008 some of the justification was the following:

The contract will enable the council to achieve better control and value for money in the recruitment of temporary staff

The Hays Temp Desk arrangement, operating for 3 years has achieved savings of more than £2.5m. They complete all the recruitment, saving Barnet staff across all service areas, considerable time and enabling the Council to achieve temp staff rates 20-25% less than if we purchased on the open market.

Through the existence of a centralised agency temp desk, the Council can control and monitor its use of temporary workers and the agencies that supply temporary workers to London Borough of Barnet, thereby achieving better control of temporary staff costs and visibility to reduce expenditure and improve performance from suppliers.

They were words, just words, empty words, space filling words and then many parts of the council carried on with their own local open amrket arrangements with individuals and didn't maximise the savings or management information which would have come from fully using the contract.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

FOI 1043 - CCMPS

Let us continue with Mr Mustard's FOI requests.

This was another very simple request, for just one item, and look what a meal the council made of it. This table records the various steps that had to be taken.

Summary of steps taken on FOI 1043
Step	Date	From	To	What ?
1	13-Jun	Mr M	foi@barnet	Request for copy CCMPS contract
2	14-Jun	LBB	Mr M	Acknowledgement
3	23-Jul	Mr M	LBB	Reminder to reply
4	23-Jul	LBB	Mr M	Out of office
5	23-Jul	Mr M	foi@barnet	Reminder to reply
6	08-Aug	LBB	Mr M	Answer promised for 22 August
7	18-Aug	Mr M	LBB	Expressing dismay at time to reply
8	18-Aug	LBB	Mr M	Out of office
9	22-Aug	LBB	Mr M	Reply received - sort of
10	22-Aug	Mr M	LBB	Queries reply received
11	22-Aug	LBB	Mr M	Acknowledgement
12	20-Sep	LBB	Mr M	Further reply with DPR & Order

So what did Mr Mustard want to see - a copy of the contract for the services of Chris Malyon, the Assistant Director of something or other, oh yes, that's it, the AD of Commercial Services, previously of Capita ( what's that Mrs Angry - conflict of interest during a period of intensive outsourcing activity - possibly if only accidentally - old school tie and all that ). Mr Mustard has just noticed that Mr Malyon called himself the AD of Commercial Services but the council's paperwork says he was the AD of Commercial Assurance - what hope if there when an AD can't even get his own job title correct?

Mr Mustard always thinks that he will get his simple requests, like this one, answered by return of post, but he never does.

Step 1 : Mr Mustard asked for an unredacted copy of the contract as he knew that the daily pay rate was £650. Given the huge number of consultants at Barnet Council he thought that there would be a "fill in the gaps" contract and he would simply be sent a copy of it. Too easy!

Step 2 : Usually an acknowledgement gets issued within a day or two.

Step 3 : As the reply was overdue Mr Mustard sent a polite reminder. It said "Dear FOI, This reply is overdue, yours sincerely"

Step 4 : Mr Mustard received a reply by return. Unfortunately it was an out-of office reply. Here it is  ( Mr Mustard has decided to spare the blushes of the procurement manager involved by not using their name but their performance has been dismal - only a 2/10 )

I will be out of the office on annual leave 25 July to 5 August 2011. I will not be able to access emails during this time but will respond/action asap thereafter.

Should you have a clarification relating to Dollis Valley Regeneration please forward this to barnet@4projectsmail.com copying dollisvalleyregencd@barnet.gov.uk.

If you have a clarification regarding Granville Road NW2 please forward this to granville.road@barnet.gov.uk

If your query relates to procurement please forward this to 
Colin Attree email: colin.attree@barnet.gov.uk 020 8359 7194 or 
Martyn Carter email: martyn.carter@barnet.gov.uk 020 8359 7267 or 
Nasreen Tayab email: nasreen.tayab@barnet.gov.uk 020 8359 3367 or 
Nadeem Ghani email: nadeem.ghani@barnet.gov.uk 020 8359 4558 or 
Caroline Pereira email: caroline.pereria@barnet.gov.uk 020 8359 7057

If your query relates to FOI - then tough ( Mr Mustard's addition to the response !).

Mr Mustard used to lead a team of 15 staff. He would never let them just set the out-of-office and expect the customer to do the running around. What should happen in a well run office? another staff member should have access to your emails and forward them on to whoever is delegated to answer them during your absence. This employee was away for 10 days. Barnet Council have a target that 85% of correspondence is to be answered within 10 days - this target is often missed and no wonder.

Step 5 : Mr Mustard simply resent the email, that was to a named contact, to the FOI department.

Step 6 : Mr Mustard wonders if there is a game that Barnet Council plays - "Who can get the most withering email from Mr Mustard" - Mr Mustard predicts that Cllr Thomas might well win next week ( for 2011 anyway ). This is the ridiculous reply that Mr Mustard received ( please consider that a proper response was already well overdue ) and which he has annotated in red

I have returned from annual leave today ( lucky you ) and note receipt of your follow-up email. As I do not hold this information ( I am not responsible ) and, as mentioned in my earlier email have a co-ordinating role in obtaining the information you request ( don't blame me for council incompetence, I am only a procurement manager), I will highlight that your request is now overdue and requires prompt attention ( Mr Mustard had already done that to foi@barnet.gov.uk and they did zilch ). Please be advised that it is estimated that information will be available for 22 August 2011 ( do you every get really mad when people write stupid things to you? ) this estimation has been based on overlapping annual leave commitments ( there is no commitment to service to the council tax payer ) if it is available earlier it will be released prior to that date. ( It is more likely that Cllr Brian Coleman will start catching the bus to council meetings ).

Step 7 : 10 days later, he was busy, Mr Mustard expressed his disappointment!

I am disappointed by your email of 8 August 2011.

You do not say which entire department is on holiday such that the 2 minute job of providing this contract, which I requested on 13 June, cannot be fulfilled.

Barnet Council per se does not go on holiday. It is the duty of Barnet Council to answer all requests promptly and within 20 working days. Barnet Council has already been on the watch list of the Information Commissioner in 2010 and it would appear that the council did not learn much from that episode.

I have not raised a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner but have sent them a copy of this email so that they can see the lack of dedication to dealing with even the most simple of requests.

Which was a much milder email than Mr Mustard had every right to send ( The Right Honourable Eric Pickles MP said that Mrs Angry had every right to be angry; if you should happen to bump into Cllr Thomas, Uncle Eric, could you give him a nudge in the right direction i.e. away from blabbing rubbish to the local papers and instead get him to sort out the council - thank you ) 

Step 8 : Mr Mustard received another out of office. Procurement has been a complete disaster ( MetPro didn't have a contract but did have £1.6m of our money for those who don't know ). Mr Mustard wonders if that is at all related to the managers seeming to be on one big holiday.

Step 9 : 22 August, as promised; better late than never.

Further to the email of 8 August 2011 please find attached the information which you requested in your earlier email of 13 June 2011. I am in receipt of your email of 18 August 2011 the contents of which are noted. ( I have noted = I have done nothing )

The information was an out of focus signed contract and a blank of what was supposed to be the same contract.

click to enlarge - back to return

So this is a contract between CCMPS & Hays, and there is a separate contract between Hays and Barnet Council which includes all consultants ( Mr Mustard has not yet asked to see this but probably will now )

Click on this contract to enlarge it and at the top right you will see that the imprint date is 01-10

 

On this page you see the date of signature of 23 May 2011. According to his linked-in page Mr Malyon started at Barnet in November 10 and yet the Delegated Powers Report to authorise his role was only signed on 15 February 2011. All very odd.

With his usual eye for detail Mr Mustard noticed that the imprint date on the blank contract was a different one ( 06/11 ) to the one on the signed version. Oh dear, completely irrelevant then and necessary to have the correct version. Evidently the un-named procurement manager didn't check it before sending it out as fact.

Looking at the sub paragraphs which start with a 2 there are 9 of them and on the signed version there are 10 sub-paragraphs starting with a 2.

At this point Mr Mustard would like to point out that the escalating time cost of answering this FOI request, which should have taken 2 minutes, was entirely caused by Barnet Council's labyrinthine & incompetent administrative machinations.

Anyway, faced with inconsistency Mr Mustard wrote again ( in case Barnet Council think they can bore Mr Mustard to death then please remember that his alter ego a debt collector and it was once necessary for him in his professional life to make over 150 phone calls on a certain subject to get the answer - he is not going to be put off by amateurish attempts to frustrate due process ) as follows:-

Step 10:

Thank you for your email of today.

I note that the signed Contract you have sent me has a version date at the top of 01-10 and the blank contract that you have supplied is the 06/11 version and so must be different. Please supply a clear copy of the 01-10 version.

I also note that the contract is dated 23 May 2011 and I see from the list of payments over £500 that payments were made to CCMPS in February 2011.

Was there a written contract which covered the period from February to May 2011?

If not, please say so.

if there was please provide a copy of the signed contract.

What fee is/was paid to Hays Specialist Recruitment Ltd in respect of the Contract(s) with CCMPS Ltd

Step  11 : another acknowledgement.

Thank you for your request received by us on 22 August 2011

This request has been raised with officers that hold information and/or response that you request. You are entitled to a prompt response which in any event should be sent within 20 working days from the date of receipt.

This response brought to mind the game that he sometimes sees on TV "The Million Pound Drop" whereby a confident contestant can "stop the clock". Barnet Council employees play their own version, where they try to waste a million pounds on wrong answers to FOI responses and they"start the clock" to get the 20 days running again. It was entirely wrong of you Procurement Manager ( you have done nothing for the reputation of the disgraced procurement section - Captain Cooper will be waving the ceremonial sword in your direction ) to start the 20 days off again as Mr Mustard had not asked a new question. He correctly queried that your earlier answer was incorrect. You should have been falling over yourself in your haste to correct a wrong answer.

Step 12 : The answers arrive.

Thank you for your request received by us on 22 August 2011 for the following information:Thank you for your email of today.

I note that the signed Contract you have sent me has a version date at the top of 01-10 and the blank contract that you have supplied is the 06/11 version and so must be different. Please supply a clear copy of the 01-10 version. We have been informed that the 06/11 version is the same as the 01-10 version, the version supplied was the clearest available.

 

I also note that the contract is dated 23 May 2011 and I see from the list of payments over £500 that payments were made to CCMPS in February 2011.

Was there a written contract which covered the period from February to May 2011? If not, please say so These payments were covered by Purchase Order 4400160882 purchase orders are a form of contract. Copy of purchase order attached for information. Authorisation for value of Purchase Order was provided by copy DPR attached for information.

if there was please provide a copy of the signed contract. As stated Purchase Order 4400160882 is a form of contract

What fee is/was paid to Hays Specialist Recruitment Ltd in respect of the Contract(s) with CCMPS Ltd The Hays charge for CCMPS, is £25.00 per timesheet. Timesheets are done on a weekly basis.

You may have been informed that the 06/11 version is the same as the 01-10 version but is it? Anyone who knows anything knows that at reprint time if changes are made the date is changed, otherwise the document is reprinted with the old date. Also if you had compared the two documents then you would have seen they were different, are you sure you are good enough to be a procurement manager, or did you just not care about your reply? 

"Purchase orders are a form of Contract". How very unamusing. Many man hours have been spent on the Procurement Action Plan, including by the Audit Committee. Action 2 says "Formal written contracts should be established for all services commissioned by the Council as required by the Contract procedure Rules." The task set was "Put in place contracts for all current spend for all vendors where spend exceeds £25k and no contract currently in place". The PAP doesn't say "a late issued purchase order will do the job of a contract nicely." The report to the Audit Committee of 6 September 2011, contributed to by Crapitain Cooper. Commercial Director and Mick Stokes, Assistant Director of Commercial Assurance, assured the committee that "For the purposes of preparing the corporate contracts register, the highest threshold test has been used to define a compliant contract: a contract that is signed/sealed by both parties is in existence and its location is known and it is available for scrutiny." Obviously back in February, before the pretty poor procurement practices were thrust into the spotlight by MetPro, things were different and a purchase order was better than no paperwork at all.

You need to study this DPR next ( you might want to print this entire post out to study it, see the icon at the bottom of the page )

as ever, click to enlarge; back to return

So this DPR was authorised on 15 February 2011 and yet somehow CCMPS were paid on 2 February 2011. The cart came before the horse, and before Crapitain Cooper's Ford Cortina!

Look at the Full Year Cost ( including on-cost ) that an employee would cost - £119,560 to £130,300 which makes one think that this is all that this DPR is sanctioning. Not so, we were so fortunate to get this bloke for 20% less than the agency rate, at the very unreasonable rate of £650 a day. So if we assume 220 days will be worked in a year ( 260 less 10 bank holidays and 25 days holiday less a few other odd days ) then the cost would be £143,000 which is quite a lot more than the salary scale. If you look now at the purchase order above it is for £145,000 so rather than being cheaper than an employee, he was much more expensive.

There are still some worrying aspects to this rigmarole.

Go back and take a look at the signed contract. It says "Generated by CamScanner from intsig.com"  which means that someone used an iPhone, or similar, to scan this document. If council staff, or Hays staff, are going around scanning documents using their phones ( no wonder it is such a poor scan ) then that leaves a great big hole in data protection at the council ( Mr Mustard wonders if the AD of Audit & Risk Management reads the blog ? you should read them all Mary-Ellen so you find out what is going on at the council - we are your free armchair auditors ). Barnet Council spent £202,000 on scanning software ( Wisdom EDMRS ) and has 5 scanners that each cost over £2,000 and so instead of using them some genius thinks he/she will take an out of focus picture with his/her mobile phone.

Why are Hays being paid £25 per week to process and pay the timesheets? Seems like an extra administrative step that isn't needed and isn't worth £1,000 p.a. 

So Cllr Thomas what do you think of that little lot? A lot more questions than answers and some doubtful dealings. Maybe you might like to spend your time finding out what goes on in the Council rather than moaning to the local paper about armchair auditors? 

If you haven't had enough yet there is lots more to come.

Send Mr Mustard your apology as soon as you like.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Surely there cannot be 55 temps in Revenues & Benefits ?

It appears, unknown sources reveal ( although Barnet Council will find it to be quite hard to hide them in a corner of the office ) that there may be 55 temps in Revenues & Benefits, all sourced from Hays, and the charge for them is over £20 per hour and they are working 9 hour days so that makes about £200,000 a month. 

This staggering amount would be bad enough if the extra staff were needed but Mr Mustard is told that the permanent staff can cope with both the normal workload and the backlog caused by the forced system change. Unusually it isn't the staff who are pushing for the temps to be retained but management and possibly the top paid temp, the £1,000 a day Mr Andrew Travers. There are 162 staff in this department according to the options appraisal so that would be 1 in 3 extra employees who all have to be shown what to do in what is a complicated area. Mr Mustard feels sure that this must be slowing the regular staff down. 

Now the Hays group companies were paid nearly £4million by Barnet Council in the year to 31 March 2011 so £200,000 would not be an unusual amount for a month.

Mr Mustard is now setting his bloodhound on the trail and will let you know anything else that he finds. Now if you happen to have any information don't be afraid to share: email it to Mr Mustard, create yourself a disposable email if you wish, although in any event he keeps confidences.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard