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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G’day John
As the “Certified correct for payment” signature is blacked out, we can’t tell who at Wirral Council just paid it without scrutinising whether it was correct or not.
John if you want any information about who paid Wirral “Funny” Bizz oodles and oodles of dodgy invoices just ask “Highbrow” he has all the info.
I wonder why they kept paying them for eighteen months after the whistle was blown.
I think the DCLG Report might answer that one….maybe?
Ooroo
John
I bet you thought I would have been more rude about “The Dunny Chain Wearers” hand in your previous item. ha ha
He certainly shocked the other bloke by the look of it.
I’ve changed the “we” to a “you”.
This carelessness is how they were ‘conned’ into paying 50grand to a ficticous nursing home,
I think the nursing home was real, but the con artists sent Wirral Council an email asking to change the banking details. Nobody from Wirral Council rang the home to check the email was genuine, so the fraudsters got the next payments to the nursing home paid to them. It’s all detailed in a previous blog post of mine headlined Wirral Council reveals how fraudsters conned them out of £45k.
G’day John
Did they ever find it or did they treat it like the money that Wirral “Funny” Bizz got away and are spending in Portugal?
They probably don’t care like “The Football Shit” its not his money..
Ooroo
James
If Graeme Greer can earn a £150 an hour they should employ someone who can add up next time they send out invoices!