Barnet Times: "Council needs to ‘tighten up’ contract management admits councillor"

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"Barnet Council’s cabinet member for resources and performance, Cllr Daniel Thomas, has admitted the council needs to 'tighten up' its contract management after it ignored its own rules by employing unlicensed security firm MetPro without a formal contract.

"A damning audit committee review written by the council’s own assistant director of finance, said the failure exposed it to “significant” risks."

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Comment left by Mr Reasonable: 

"I find Cllr Thomas' complacency astonishing. The MetPro report is the tip of the iceberg. The Internal Audit Annual Opinion is a catalogue of failures and lack of management control: '72% of audit reports were rated as limited or no assurance in 2010-11, compared with 67% of report in the prior year'. 

The Audit Opinion report goes on to say, amongst other things:
'Contract Management/Procurement – there is an absence of signed contracts and sound contract management generally across the Council. In addition to individual service areas, we reviewed corporate procurement and found that the devolved process has not been successful, due to the lack of monitoring of compliance with contract procedural rules, and a lack of a complete and accurate contracts register'."