The manager of a Dundee office furniture supplier has expressed his anger over the way the city council has awarded the contract worth more than £500,000 to kit out its new HQ.
The man, who asked not to be named, criticised the local authority for not allowing the decision on who should receive the work to be made by a council committee, so that all the relevant factors could be aired.
Instead, the selection was made under delegated powers designed to speed up the process.
The move has led to accusations that the contract for furnishing the £34 million Dundee House on North Lindsay Street is being approved through the back door.
Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson is so concerned that he has written to the chief executive.
He said, “I’m furious about the way in which this contract has been decided over half a million pounds decided by convener’s approval a method of delegated approval because of ‘short timescales’.
“The council has known it was moving into Dundee House for years. I simply don’t accept that the matter could not be brought to committee for a proper debate and discussion before this level of expenditure is made.”
The spend will be noted by councillors at the policy and resources committee meeting in June.
Councillor Macpherson continued, “I’m very unhappy about the situation given the amount of expenditure and the fact that there will be absolutely no discussion of this until June 13, by which time the 10-day standstill period will be over.
“Officers regularly ask the convener for approval to place items on committee agendas at extremely short notice I’ve seen it where the first I knew about an item was when I saw it sitting on my desk in the council chamber.
“Far better that, however, than to rush it through under delegated powers then fail to report it to committee for three weeks.”
However, administration leader Ken Guild, who also serves as convener of the policy and resources committee, said the move was necessary to ensure the building was ready to open for business in August.
“This is common practice and has been used to expedite matters in the past,” he said. “This has been fully discussed by the Dundee House board, of which Mr Macpherson is a member, and is being done to get the furniture in time for Dundee House opening.’Empty building'”If Mr Macpherson wants to delay things, he will find that officers will turn up to an empty building.”
A council spokesman said, “The council has been focused on ensuring that the best possible value for money is being delivered throughout the process of building and fitting out Dundee House.
“That same attention to detail and rigour has been applied to this element of the contract so that we can purchase the furniture for Dundee House in the most cost-effective way.
“The process of seeking agreement from the committee convener and opposition group leaders is in accordance with standing orders. It allows the council the flexibility to deliver the best possible value for money for the council tax payers of Dundee.”
Before contacting The Courier, the manager of one firm that tendered for the contract found out it had been awarded outside the area. He believes this was done without any real debate about the issue.
He said, “They are just not supporting local businesses. This job would have been enough to keep us going for six months and we had hoped to use it as a platform to move ahead.
“We thought we might have been able to take people on but now we might have to look at redundancies.
“If we could see that we had lost it fair and square it would be one thing, but we met all the specifications, and for it not to go before a panel who could look at everything in detail is ridiculous.”