Sheffield City Council has become the latest local authority to shun the services of local government supplier, Liberata.
The Yorkshire council picked Capita Group Plc to take over its seven-year, £200m contract providing ICT, payroll, revenue and benefits, and financial business transactions, from January 2009.
Sheffield City Council finance member, Cllr Simon Clement-Jones, said: ‘Above all, there will be a step change for the better in these services, for our customers, the people of Sheffield.’
It leaves Liberata, previous supplier of 10 years, out in the cold. A spokesman said: ‘Liberata is disappointed with the outcome but respects Sheffield City Council’s decision.’
The company has promised to work with the new supplier to provide ‘a seamless transition of services’ on 5 January next year, and thanked its staff for their work over the past decade.
But the decision appears to have come at a difficult time for the firm, founded by Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy to provide back-office services for local and central government. Its chief executive. Robert Gogel, left in September after selling Liberata’s financial services business. Since then, a pioneering deal to provide shared services for Leicestershire’s Charnwood BC and Nottinghamshire’s Rushcliffe BC fell through this month, amid claims Liberata failed to meet the councils’ contract conditions.
And hundreds of temporary workers at both its Lancashire office in Nelson and Coventry office, which dealt with the Government’s Educational Maintenance Allowances contract, have lost their jobs.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘As a privately-held company, it is Liberata’s policy not to comment on speculation about it. Liberata is fully operational and is continuing to provide outsourcing services for all of its clients.’
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