In Procurement any old supplier will do.

Mr Mustard is something of an expert in the solvency arena having worked for a quarter of a century in credit control of one sort or another. Prior to that he had been the manager of the purchase ledger for a chain of private hospitals. As important as ensuring that your customers can pay you is that your suppliers will be around in the future to support you. Barnet Council have a set of rules to ensure that suppliers are solvent and monitored; they would seem to have failed.

Who prepared the graphic designs for the new website ( expected on 30 March but doubtless it will be late in arriving ) and were paid £15,000 in September 2011? The firm of CDT Design Ltd. Who has just gone into liquidation and so won't be around to make any amendments? yes, CDT Design Ltd in liquidation.

Just look at the figures:

Cdt Design Liquidation

Well, CDT Design were in a pretty bad way then, weren't they? They haven't paid their PAYE (sounds like Barnet Council who regard it as option for interims) or their VAT. They were also insolvent to the tune of £371,463 not what one would call an insignificant sum. 

Now could Barnet Council have known about the parlous state of the finances of CDT Design? Yes, of course they could. They subscribe to Experian, one of the largest sources of financial information in the land and it is a minutes work to download from Companies House as Mr Mustard has done.

CDT Design Ltd Accounts to 31 March 2010

So what we can see from the accounts to 31 March 2010, which were filed in September 2010 is that the company had borderline solvency.

Thus it was that Barnet Council employed them in 2011 and paid them as follows :

What	Who	Date	Ref	Value £
Equip-Mats-Purc-Rep	CDT Design Ltd	06/04/2011	5000300950	4,015.00
Equip-Mats-Purc-Rep	CDT Design Ltd	06/04/2011	5000300952	4,015.00
Equip-Mats-Purc-Rep	CDT Design Ltd	06/04/2011	5000300954	1,275.00
Equip-Mats-Purc-Rep	CDT Design Ltd	06/04/2011	5000300954	1,237.50
Equip-Mats-Purc-Rep	CDT Design Ltd	06/04/2011	5000300954	1,237.50
Consult Fees	CDT Design Ltd	19/04/2011	5000302268	840.00
Consult Fees	CDT Design Ltd	19/04/2011	5000302269	2,340.00
Consult Fees	CDT Design Ltd	04/07/2011	5000309677	3,750.00
Equip-Mats-Purc-Rep	CDT Design Ltd	23/08/2011	5000315427	1,450.00

In addition Mr Mustard has an FOI response which says that CDT were paid £15,000 in September 2011.

So which officer is responsible for Information Systems? It is ultimately Crapitain Craig Cooper, the Commercial Director, who is paid £132,480 p.a. and who is responsible for procurement and for adherence to the council's rules on purchasing and the vetting of suppliers, yes, it is Craig Cooper, the Commercial Director on £132,480 p.a.

Would it be too kind to use the description "inept"?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

MetPro - an open letter from Barnet's bloggers to Barnet Council

Press release — 4 April 2011

Call for a public inquiry into the relationship between
MetPro Rapid Response/MetPro Emergency Response and Barnet Council

Barnet Council has been engaging private security firms MetPro Rapid Response/MetPro Emergency Response to control residents’ access to council meetings, in particular the council meeting on 1 March 2011. One of the company directors claims the company has also monitored blogs by Barnet residents, and filmed Barnet residents at Council meetings.

Despite holding contracts worth several hundred thousand pounds with Barnet Council, MetPro Rapid Response collapsed recently owing around £400,000, including £245,000 to HM Revenue & Customs. The firm is now in the hands of liquidators; however, MetPro Emergency Response, a company recently set up by the same company directors associated with MetPro Rapid Response, continued for a while to be employed by Barnet after the collapse of MetPro Rapid Response.

As well as providing security for Council meetings, these firms provided security at several council locations, including some housing vulnerable people.

At the meeting on 1 March, it appears that MetPro security staff did not wear visible identification, breaching Security Industry Authority (SIA) regulations, whilst working for Barnet.

Statements made by directors of the company regarding the scope of their work for Barnet have been contradicted by executive officers of Barnet Council.

The full facts regarding Barnet Council’s contract/s with MetPro Rapid Response/MetPro Emergency Response must be revealed to the public. We need to know about the use of data collected by the company (with full consideration for data protection and human rights implications). We need Barnet Council to reveal the extent of the MetPro companies’ activities on behalf of the Council. Residents and Council staff have a right to know what activities their Council undertake. They have a right to expect the Council only to engage firms with a proven track record for such activities and to monitor such, ensuring, for example, that they comply with legislation, eg, SIA regulations.

The only way that trust can be restored in Barnet Council, following the MetPro debacle, is to hold a full public inquiry. We the undersigned call on Nick Walkley, CEO of Barnet Council, and Lynne Hillan, Council Leader, to immediately engage an independent investigator, enjoying the confidence of Barnet residents, to look into the relationship between MetPro Rapid Response/MetPro Emergency Response and Barnet Council. We demand to know what Barnet Council asked MetPro Rapid Response/MetPro Emergency Response to do and what Barnet Council has done with any information about residents it has had access to as a result of MetPro’s work.

Signed:

Alexander Clayman (N12)

Derek Dishman (EN5)

Adam Langleben (HA8)

Vicki Morris (NW9)

Theresa Musgrove (N3)

Maria Nash (EN4)

Julian Silverman (N12)

Roger Tichborne (NW7)

Adele Winston (EN5)

Contact for more details: Vicki Morris (vickimorris@btinternet.com)

If you want to add your name to this letter please email Vicki Morris