Council has questions to answer over procurement policy

Screenshot of council adult care web page

Rochdale Borough Council has questions to answer over its procurement policy, says local web developer Mark Birkett.

Rochdale Online submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Council regarding the updating of the adult care section of the Council website, for which a fee of £37,000 had been paid to two southern-based companies, Oxford Computer Consultants (OCC) and Liquid Logic (LL).

We asked local web developer Mr Birkett to review the updated section in light of the fee. He considered the fee to be "staggering" and was angry that the FOI response from the Council also revealed the work had not been put out to tender thereby denying local developers the opportunity to quote for the work.

A letter drafted by Mr Birkett, with 38 other signatories, was sent to all 60 councillors asking pertinent questions.

In the meantime it became apparent the amount spent with OCC and LL was way beyond £37,000, in fact, over the past two years the council has paid them over half a million pounds. It is believed none of this work was put out to tender.

Rochdale Online submitted a further Freedom of Information request asking for details of all payments to Liquid Logic and Oxford Computer Consultants in the past 10 years and details of exactly what the payments were for - the response to the FOI request is awaited.

Asked to comment, Sheila Downey, Director of Adult Services, replied on behalf of the Council, she said: "Stay Well is much more than website pages. It includes functionality that, for the first time, will enable people in need of adult care (often some of the most vulnerable people in our communities) and their carers and families to access a range of services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in one dedicated place. It will also allow people to manage personal budgets and carry out self-assessments and is integrated into the council’s case recording and finance systems.

"It was created by an organisation that had previously been procured to provide an integrated software system for adult services. The council does use local companies when it is able to do so but on this occasion it was felt that as the company currently provides the integrated case management system that has been embedded within our adult care service for more than seven years, it would be more cost-effective to ask them to update it rather than carry out a new procurement process."

Further clarification was sought by Rochdale Online in the form of the following questions:

1. Integrating web pages with back end databases is a fairly simple job, could you please explain, in detail, what was so complicated about this that it justifies what to most people is a huge fee?
2. You say the Council felt it would be more cost effective to ask OCC/Liquid Logic to update. We are struggling to understand how anyone could judge anything to be "more cost effective" without having done any comparisons or obtaining alternative prices. Can you explain how please?
3. We are also aware that the Council has spent over half a million pounds in the past couple of years with OCC/Liquid Logic and we further understand that none of this work was put out to tender. Can you explain, in detail, what this staggering amount was for and why none of the work was put out to tender?
4. Of that half million, £95,000 was for 'consultancy' - what exactly did the 'consultants' provide for that huge fee?

Ms Downey responded to say the questions are to be treated as an FOI request - giving the council 20 working days to answer.

Oxford Computer Consultants and Liquid Logic ignored requests for comment.