Why did Wirral Council not check an invoice from Weightmans for £2,185.20 was correct before paying it?

                                                                

Above is an invoice from Weightmans to Wirral Council for £2,185.20. However it doesn’t add up. If the hours part is to be believed then these are the real figures:

Graeme Creer (GCR Partner) 13.8 hours @ £150/hour = £2,070
Simon Goacher (SIG Partner) 0.6 hours @ £150/hour = £90
Morris Hill (MHL Associate) 0.5 hours @ £120/hour = £60

+ VAT (20%) = £444

Total: £2,664

However the invoice is only for £2,185.20.

As the “Certified correct for payment” signature is blacked out, you can’t tell who at Wirral Council just paid it without scrutinising whether it was correct or not.

So perhaps somebody leave a comment answering are employees at Wirral Council supposed to check invoices are correct before paying them?

In Wirral Council’s constitution it specifies the following under “Financial Regulations”.

5.3.2 The key controls for ordering and paying for work, goods and services are:-

…

(v) payments are made to the correct person/supplier, for the correct amount and are properly recorded, regardless of the payment method;

5.3.5 Chief Officers are responsible for ensuring that all goods and services are properly ordered, received and paid for in accordance with Guidelines for Financial Systems.

Quite what the mysterious “Guidelines for Financial Systems” are I don’t know. The Chief Officer for legal expenditure would be Surjit Tour, although it’s clearly not his signature on the invoice.

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