Tenders could be discussed behind closed doors, Councillor suggests

Sheamus Greene told Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Policy and Resources (P&R) Committee meeting last Wednesday evening that he wants to see the pricing included in the tender details which are presented to Councillors, even if that means the prices have to be discussed under confidential matters (which means members of the public and press must leave the chamber and the audio recording is switched off.)
The Erne East Councillor’s call came the day after Northern Ireland’s top civil servant David Sterling told the RHI inquiry that civil servants had “got into the habit” of not minuting meetings at Stormont in an attempt to frustrate Freedom of Information requests because the DUP and Sinn Féin were sensitive to criticism. Mr. Sterling’s revelation prompted the Information Commissioner’s Office – the UK’s information rights watchdog – to release a statement saying it would contact the head of the civil service “to raise our concerns as a matter of urgency.”
Councillor Greene was accused of having “no confidence” in Council officers or the tendering process by UUP Councillor Robert Irvine, but he rejected that idea.
He was backed by party colleague John Feely, who said: “In the legacy Fermanagh District Council the amount of money in tenders was included. If that means that part of it has to go into committee, I don’t see the problem with that.”
Addressing the meeting, Councillor Greene said: “I find it very hard … If some company or somebody comes to me and says: ‘I feel I was badly done by in that [tender]. Did you see it going through the Council?’ I can’t say … When it was going through Fermanagh District Council you could see where the pricing and could ask questions as to why this or that happened, whereas you can’t here.”
He added: “We are passing these tenders and we are voting on them but I haven’t the information to make a full decision.
“I understand there’s a problem with it being public meetings now but that was why I suggested it could be done in confidential matters. If there was a question about pricing or why somebody got it at a higher price than somebody else, at least then it’s transparent and if anyone asks a question of a Councillor we have seen the full information.”
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance, Celine McCartan explained that Council officers recently completed an internal audit of the procurement process and that a report will soon be presented to the audit panel.
“We would expect there are a number of recommendations that will be coming out of that,” she said.
Councillor Greene queried why the issue was being discussed by the audit panel. Ms. McCartan replied: “We are aware of the difficulties sometimes that suppliers and organisations experience in terms of trying to meet all of our procurement requirements and we’ve actively been trying to work to see how we can simplify the processes and we have spent quite a considerable amount of time on this. It has been done from a review perspective and the time that was allocated to do that was through our internal audit plan. Therefore that’s why to complete that circle and to ensure the accountability is there that it is going through the audit panel.”
She assured Councillors that “the Council has very robust and detailed arrangements around procurement.”
She said the procurement team is “trained and experienced and go to great efforts to ensure that all of the procedures that you have approved are properly applied.”
She said tendering is audited externally by the Northern Ireland Audit Office and internally by the Council’s internal audit.
Ms. McCartan added: “The amount of information that is provided to you in this public report is certainly on a par, if not much more than other Councils or other public organisations provide in respect of tendering. We have undertaken to look at a number of issues in relation to our tendering to simplify the processes and make it easier to do business with the Council and that remains an objective. We are working through that process and I would ask for the time to complete that and try to work to improve the processes that we do adopt.”
However, Councillor Greene persisted, saying: “I appreciate all that, but we are voting on something that we haven’t the full information on and if something does go wrong, we have voted on it. It will come down to us. It will not come down to anyone else, it will be us who will be held responsible for it. I’m not comfortable passing things that I haven’t seen the full information on.”
He added: “There might be no question 11 months out of the 12 on this, but the information that’s coming through on this, there’s no relevance in it. It’s just a list of names and that’s it. And we are presuming that everything’s done correctly, and I would presume that everything’s done correctly, but that’s not the way things work. You are supposed to be able to make a decision on the facts and figures that you see, not on somebody saying: ‘Aww, it was done alright, so you can vote it through and say it’s alright.’”
Councillor Robert Irvine interjected, saying: “I think that what Councillor Greene is expressing is that he has no confidence in either our officers or the process and the level of management accounts – that’s the assumption I am making from his comments. I am happy with the level of information that is being brought forward. There are issues that we have highlighted through various sources with regard the processing time of procurement. Those are being dealt with by the Director. As she’s already said, all these processes are subject to internal and external audit and that’s why it’s going to the audit panel. I do not see the reason for getting a different type of information coming forward.”
Council Chief Executive Brendan Hegarty stated: 
“We see what some members are saying – they would like to see more visibility. We will look at that and we will bring a report back to the Council and it will be a matter than for the Council to determine whether they want and agree to get more information if we can provide that.”