The apparent loss or waste of £300,000 of public money is no small matter even in the context of a Council the size of Brighton and Hove which has an annual budget of £756m. The money is claimed to have been over overcharged by one of the electrical contractors recruited by Mears during 2014 and 2015 and it is not unreasonable to expect that report on this loss is published in full as a matter of priority. Last Tuesday the Council Audit and Standards Committee met and it had been expected that a full report would be submitted to the ASC. However the agenda for the meeting included the explanation shown below that suggests that the Committee won’t see the report until January, simply because the report won’t be ready until the end of this month and the Committee won’t meet again until 2018. It seems rather concerning that whatever the causes of this financial problem that Councillors and the Independent members of the ASC will not see a report for another four months. This may mean that we will see it shortly afterwards. However even that is not certain because it will depend on the decisions of the Council. In the light of the delay which seems hard to understand for those of us outside of the process, perhaps Cllr Joe Miller could publish a response that helps to explain what lies behind this situation and whether the Council are in control of such contracts and managing them effectively. I work for a Company that supplies services for a number of Councils and the idea that a contract could be overcharged by £300,000 without being detected in such a way that either clarifies that the spend was legitimate or determines that the spend was illegitimate seems inconceivable. Such matters may not come to light immediately, but for a case to be unresolved after almost 4 years implies that there needs to be scrutiny of the Council as much as the contract needs to be resolved.

Commentary on progress on Housing Electrical Work discrepancies
A 2016/17 internal audit report confirmed that discrepancies identified between work
carried out and the charges for electrical work under the housing repairs contract
required further review. This outcome of the audit was reported to Audit and Standards
Committee in November 2016.
The examination of these issues has proved to be a complex exercise and has taken
much longer than originally envisaged. We understand that the Housing Service has
been working with Mears to more clearly understand and resolve these and address
any ongoing matters. Work is still in progress which includes inspection visits as well as
the validation of data and other information. The inspections are expected to be
complete by the end of September 2017 at the latest.
A more detailed update report, covering the outcomes from this work and the actions
taken to resolve any issues arising will be provided to the next Audit and Standards
Committee in January 2018