IN THE NEWS
FIRMS UNDER PREVIOUS SCRUTINY BY AUDITORS GET NEW CONTRACT WITH SANDWELL COUNCIL
Two taxi and PH companies previously under intense scrutiny for misleading councillors at Birmingham City Council have had new contracts issued by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. North Birmingham Travel (NBT) and County Cars (CC), along with seven other taxi companies, will deliver home-to-school transport for vulnerable children across the Sandwell borough. There was intense media scrutiny last year when it was revealed there were discrepancies regard- ing taxi employees and DBS certificates in Birmingham. But Sandwell MBC stressed that new drivers and passenger assistants undergo rigorous checks, an enhanced DBS and safeguarding training before taking children to school, a requirement there since 2002. Companies Houses documents show NBT under a ‘compulsory strike off’ as recently as August 30. CC had a similar strike-off in March this year,
before being dis-
continued in May. A company will receive a compulsory strike-off notice when it fails to
file its accounts with
Companies House in time. NBTs accounts have not been updated since March 2021. Sandwell MBC’s
opposition
Conservative Cllr Jay Anandou, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he has written to Sandwell council “four times” with his concerns about the scheme. In a letter posted online, he said: “I have deep concerns about the current model which is neither entrepreneurial from a business
26
perspective, nor creating value for taxpayers money. “I have repeatedly requested the council to allow members to scrutinise the new SEND model before implementation, which was ignored, and the result yet again [is] a flawed process. “I urge the scrutiny board to call for a discussion to make sure next year’s procurement model is reviewed before implementing.” SEND contracts made the news in August 2021 after Birmingham CC had terminated its contract with NBT. The council found dis- crepancies in DBS checks for more than 50 employees and potential ‘deliberate tampering’ with a document, according to a council report. NBT has since had its contract terminated after an emergency meeting. Azeem Hafeez, director of NBT and CC, also had a four-year transport contract with Sandwell MBC. It emerged Mr Hafeez, the son of former Sandwell council deputy leader, Mahboob Hussain, were both named in the 2016 Wragge Report over dodgy land deals. The report was a significant reason for government-appointed commiss- ioners to enter the council in March.
The decision to award the
contracts came after Grant Thornton, the external auditor at Sandwell MBC, had questioned why four large contracts with just two companies were approved,
who in themselves come under the ownership of one individual. Last year, Rajbir Singh, previous leader of Sandwell council, had halted proceedings to award the contract to Mr Hafeez’s firms and established an internal review into how the award was made. This review was leaked to the LDRS, which found Sandwell MBC had ‘no written record ’ on the decision to award Mr Hafeez the £20 million contract and found that council officers failed to declare if they had any potential conflict of interests. Councillor Simon Hackett, Sandwell council's cabinet member for children and education, said: “This procurement exercise has been carried out in a fair and transparent way. We have followed a consistent process to assess each bid moderated by external legal advisors.” When queried by the LDRS on the award of contracts to NBT and CC, Councillor Hackett added: “In designing this new process for awarding contracts for SEND transportation we
have
implemented all recom- mendations made by our external auditors and from an internal review carried out after the last procurement exercise. “We have also received independent legal advice in order to design this new framework that ensures we can provide high quality services for families in Sandwell, alongside attracting multiple providers that delivers value for money for the council and means we can maintain a resilient service.”
OCTOBER 2022 PHTM
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