Dundee council chiefs clawed back £262,000 from a contract at the centre of a corruption probe – but still cannot say how much Dundee taxpayers were overcharged for the deal.
A series of investigations by The Courier uncovered how senior staff were treated to a golf trip on the Spanish coast by Edmundson Electrical just weeks after it was handed a deal worth more than £4 million to supply heat and smoke alarms.
We can now reveal that after details of the trip first came to light, council officers struck a deal with Edmundson that saw them claw back savings of more than a quarter of a million pounds.
The revelation illustrates for the first time the scale of overspending by the cash-strapped council.
However, official planning documents suggest the true cost could be far higher.
How was the public overcharged?
An investigation by the authority established a framework contract through Scotland Excel – a national scheme to help councils make the cheapest possible purchase – could have offered the equipment at better prices than Edmundson.
Council officers agreed a drop in price with Edmundson to match the Scotland Excel figures from October 2020 and that the electrical firm would waive all recycling costs.
The authority says this intervention reduced the contract by an estimated £262,000 compared to the originally negotiated price.
It claims it is not possible to calculate the extent of the overspend before April 2020 because no quote was sought at this time and no other bids were welcomed.
Edmundson was handed the £4 million supply contract as part of an overall £8.4 million project agreed by councillors in March 2019 to replace fire safety equipment.
Official documents show more than half of the £8.4 million was spent by April 2020, with a remaining £4 million spent in the following 12 months.
It means it is likely a large amount of the supply deal agreed with Edmundson had already been fulfilled before the cheaper price was introduced in late 2020.
Lessons to be learned
Fraser Macpherson, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, said there are “huge lessons” to be learned from the procurement process.
He said: “The council taxpayer has been seriously short-changed due to pathetically inadequate procedures at the time.
“Whilst I accept that the Scotland Excel procedure should ensure that future procurement goes through a commercially compliant process, it does not get around the fact that what happened with the tender in March 2019 was completely unacceptable.
“I still have concerns around the way tender procurement is presented to council committees and the chief executive is well aware of my concerns in this regard as I have raised this repeatedly.”
Not fit for purpose
North East MSP Michael Marra said the refusal of the council’s leadership to “come clean” on the full cost to taxpayers has been hugely damaging.
He said: “It’s obvious from this latest revelation that the cost can be calculated and is probably already known by council officials.
“Why on earth will they not tell taxpayers what is has cost them at a time of huge pressure on the public purse?
“The systems in place for scrutiny have clearly not been fit for purpose, with officers repeatedly refusing to disclosure information to the public.”
Dundee City Council said the material supplied by Edmundson were not available on Scotland Excel before April 2020 so comparable prices are not available before that date.
It added: “Prices would only be available if a quote had been sought at that time.
“It is therefore not possible to calculate the difference between the cost of supplying items under the original contract and when the new framework was implemented.”
Conversation