Central Beds Council says there is "no evidence" it paid for highways work that wasn't done

Central Bedfordshire Council can’t win no matter how it chooses to respond to overpayment allegations, a meeting heard.

Councillor James Jamieson (Conservative, Westoning, Flitton and Greenfield) told the Audit Committee (Thursday, July 27) that he was concerned over articles in Private Eye and on social media claiming the council had overpaid on the previous highways contract.

He wondered if the committee would consider an investigation to find the answers to three questions.

“Is there any evidence that [the council] paid for work that was not actually done?” he asked.

“I think everyone acknowledges the paperwork was not in place. When were the new procedures put in place to ensure that the appropriate paperwork was all in place?

“And was there any information known by the previous administration that we were that the previous in administration deliberately withheld from other councillors?

“I want that single version of the truth, because I think there’s something hanging out there that we need to clarify,” he said.

Councillor Jamieson had left the committee meeting before his points were addressed.

Council leader, councillor Adam Zerny (Independent, Potton) joined the committee meeting after being informed he was mentioned earlier.

“We could very easily, as the new administration, use this as a big opportunity to put out some kind of long article castigating the previous administration for not looking at this sort of thing closely enough,” he said.

“But I think the important thing is, is there any evidence that the council has paid any invoices for which the work was not conducted?

“The answer to that is no, there isn’t at the moment. And until someone is able to prove otherwise I’m comfortable with what officers are saying.”

Councillor David Shelvey (Conservative, Clifton, Henlow and Langford) said: “The articles that went out have representational issues for the council.

“[There is] the implication that there is some sort of fraud involved here, and we need to be clear that that hasn’t happened,” he said.

Charles Warboys, the council’s director of resources, said: “With respect you don’t read Private Eye to get the truth, you read it for a bit of entertainment.”

He added that if an investigation was carried out then the next Private Eye story will be “council commissions fraud investigation”.

“And that just pours petrol on the flames, if we’re concerned about the representational damage the best thing quite honestly is to do nothing and let it die and become tomorrow’s chip wrapping,” he said.

Committee chair, councillor Nigel Carnell (LibDem, Leighton Linslade North) said: “I think no news is better than going out with a story that isn’t there anyway.

“And at the moment there is no evidence, so what would we investigate?” he asked.

“[An investigation] would draw attention to us, and that will make people think that there was evidence. So it’s one of those things you can’t win either way.

“So my advice at the moment is perhaps another statement from the chief executive to underscore that there has been no evidence [of overpayment], and let that ride out, rather than incur time and costs unnecessarily.”

The committee agreed to this.