Wirral Council spends £2,294.57 on a German translation and the prize for the most pointless redaction

Wirral Council spent £2,294.57 with Capita Translation and Interpreting Limited for translation of documents from English to German. Quite why Wirral Council would spend this much on translation is unknown.

The list of payments made over £500 list the department as being the Law, HR and Asset Management department, however the invoice itself has CYP (Children and Young People) written on it.

There’s not much more to be said than this, so I’ll just move on to the most pointless bit of blacking out I’ve seen by Wirral Council on an invoice:

As you can see on this invoice the total sum payable (£785 + VAT of £157 which comes to £942) is blacked out.

So why was the total blacked out (which can easily be determined by adding two figures together)? I quote from the official response:

“Just to clarify, the invoices I supplied to you were redacted on the basis of advice from our legal section rather than by departments themselves.”

Yes this is Wirral Council, a Council that describes itself as “open and transparent”, which is seemingly something not believed by its legal department!

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Author: John Brace

New media journalist from Birkenhead, England who writes about Wirral Council. Published and promoted by John Brace, 134 Boundary Road, Bidston, CH43 7PH. Printed by UK Webhosting Ltd t/a Tsohost, 113-114 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, Berkshire, England, SL1 4PF. View all posts by John Brace