Birmingham City Council has launched an inquiry into a breach of its own procurement rules, after officials failed to put out to tender a £250,000 contract with consultant, Price- waterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Stephen Hughes, Birmingham’s chief executive, ordered the investigation into the conduct of senior officials involved in the deal, under which PwC will deliver ‘behavioural change’ programmes to around 100 local authority managers.
Mr Hughes said officials might not have followed correct procedures because they were ‘working to an extremely tight timescale’ to deliver the contract.
According to Birmingham’s own procurement rules, the council must secure three ‘competitive’ quotes for contracts worth £150,000 or more – yet PwC was the only bidder for the behavioural change contract, which was awarded by Be Birmingham, a council-led partnership body. The contract has subsequently been sub-let by PwC to a not-for-profit body known as Common Purpose.
Details of the PwC contract emerged following a Freedom of Information request issued by a local resident. Mr Brown also received an apology from the council, after his details were revealed to the successful bidder.
In correspondence with Birmingham, Mr Brown had previously been informed that it was not necessary to run a full procurement procedure on the contract in question.
However, in a letter to Mr Brown on 18 July, Mr Hughes acknowledged. He said: ‘Birmingham City Council did not fully follow procurement procedures in agreeing this order with PwC… We should have sought quotes from other providers.
‘I have asked the strategic director of development to whom the relevant officers report, to carry out a disciplinary investigation.’
