Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release
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A blog about Wirral Council, Wirral Council's councillors & officers
A blog about Wirral Council's public meetings, Wirral Council's councillors, Bidston & St. James ward and other public bodies on Merseyside
Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release
Continue reading “Wirral Council’s Standards Panel met to consider complaint made about Cllr Paul Hayes’ quote in a press release”
Why did Merseytravel spend £2,775 on a “Parliamentary Reception”?
Below is an invoice from the House of Commons to Merseytravel for £2,775.
Sadly the invoice doesn’t state a lot other than Ms Louise Ellman MP was the sponsoring MP. To find out what the room booking was for is better explained in an invoice from Bircham Dyson Bell (see below).
As you can see from the pages of the invoice above Bircham Dyson Bell charged Merseytravel £425.50 + VAT to attend a parliamentary reception on the 25th June 2014 plus £327.99 + VAT in travel expenses.
I’ll leave it to readers to comment on whether they think Merseytravel being charging £55.50 + VAT by Bircham Dyson Bell to write an email is reasonable in these times of public sector cutbacks.
Next is a “strictly private and confidential” matter. In fact so strictly private and confidential the invoice for £1,867.80 from Weightmans below only specifies that it is for “Matter number 44 Re professional services”.
But as anyone me, I like demystifying such matters, so let me let Weightmans explain what this invoice is really about.
In case you can’t read the above I’ll quote the pertinent bit here.
“Strictly private and confidential
Employment advice
Please find enclosed a bill of costs for work carried out by myself and Simon Goacher in relation to issues surrounding the Chief Executive and Director contracts.
I have not put any detail of the work on the bill or identified what it is for reasons of confidentiality. However, there is a breakdown of the work done so far on this matter attached for your attention.
I assume that matters are currently progressing satisfactorily but if you do require any further advice when the drafting is completed then please do not hesitate to contact either myself or Simon Goacher.
Thank you for your kind instructions in this matter, it is always good to work with you.
Kind regards,
Yours sincerely
Bernadette Worthington
Partner
For and on behalf of Weightmans LLP”
Going back to the original theme of political engagement is an invoice below from Kenyon Fraser for £29,160. This is for work on Merseytravel’s campaign to have a high-speed rail connection to Liverpool.
Continuing on lobbying but this time at party political conferences is an invoice for £11,429.96 for “PTEG Political engagement at Party Conferences and events each PTE see attached”.
Finally, here is an invoice for £811.20 from Key Travel for train tickets for travel from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. So what’s so unusual about that? Well the passengers are just listed as UNISON and it’s Merseytravel that have paid the invoice (I hope the costs were charged back to UNISON)!
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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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