With the consent of Council Councillor
Webber moved his motion amended at the suggestion of Councillor David
Bartholomew as shown below in strikethrough and bold italics:
The Council’s Procurement procedures have
been the subject of concern for some time. At the latest Audit and Governance
Committee meeting, the subject of a claim made over a breach of Procurement
procedures by the Council was considered. This breach of procedure has cost the
Council, and hence Oxfordshire taxpayers, £1.6 million in compensation and
legal costs.
Council notes that the role of the Audit
& Governance Committee is to ensure that the Council's procedures are
robust, that taxpayer's money is controlled properly and that it is spent wisely.
The timeline provided to the Audit and
Governance Committee meeting on this matter shows that the Portfolio Holder and
the Chair of Audit and Governance were both aware of the breach and cost of out
of court settlement in February 2020, but and as an independent
report was in progress, the Audit Working Group Committee was
only informed in December 2020. January 2021. Council
believes that by withholding this information from the Audit and Governance
Committee for 11 months, the Executive failed to act in the interest of
Oxfordshire taxpayers.
Council commits to ensuring that, in
future, in the interests of transparency and good governance, any breaches of
procedure are made known to members of the Audit and Governance Committee as
soon as they are known to the Executive, and that committee members are allowed
to see any reports relating to such breaches of procedure (redacted as
necessary), following any reasonable request from members of that committee and
assuming there is no legal reason why such documents should be with-held.
Following a vote
the Motion as amended was agreed unanimously.
(Recorded vote in the minutes)
Considered dropped in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.5.8.