Issue - meetings

To consider a report regarding a breach of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules, outlining the reasons for the non-compliance and the steps taken to prevent a re-occurrence.

The Committee considered a report regarding a breach of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rule.

The breach related to arrangements put in place for the collection of waste from Council premises in the former Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council. The review had concluded that poor practice had resulted in a procurement process that had breached Cheshire East Council’s Contract Procedure Rules. Full details were set out in the report.

The required actions in response to the findings in the Internal Audit report were as follows:

1.      a procurement exercise for the disposal of waste at Council premises should be undertaken;

2.      a report should be presented to Audit & Governance Committee detailing the breach of Contract Procedure Rules and the steps taken to rectify this in line with the Constitution; and

3.      the Council’s Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Offer should consider whether it was appropriate for any further action to be taken in relation to the breach of Contract Procedure Rules.

An appropriate procurement exercise was now underway.

The S151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer did not propose to take any additional direct action, although lessons would need to be learned from the situation and the risk of wider breaches would have to be mitigated.

A number of additional actions were underway as outlined in the report.

Members were also asked to note that the Internal Audit Plan for 2011/12 included provision for reviewing the Council’s procurement arrangements; this work was due to commence in the third quarter.

Councillor Marren, who had been unable to attend the meeting, had submitted comments on the matter which were reported to the Committee.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.