Author: The Management
Three Senior Isle of Wight Officers Suspended After ‘Unlawful Action’ Report
Tuesday, 20th February, 2007 at 7:54 am, Isle of Wight
The awarding of the £13m Undercliff Drive Contract To High Point Rendel has lead to the action against three officers at the very centre of the council.
The Deputy Chief Executive (John Lawson), The Director of Finance (Paul Wilkinson) and Director of Regeneration and Development (Derek Rowell), have been ’suspended pending further investigation.’
The suspensions following the publication of an independent report examining the process of awarding a £13m contract to High Point Rendel for work carried out on the Undercliff Drive between Ventnor and Niton. It was penned by a senior officer at Southampton City Council after being commissioned in November 2006.
It is understood that despite independent legal advice being given two years ago on the subject, the report claims that ’some council officers” didn’t act on this advice, despite some officers knowing about the ‘questionable’ situation at least two years ago.
Joe Duckworth, the new chief executive of Isle of Wight Council, will, on Wednesday, be recommending the setting up of a cross-party investigatory and disciplinary committee, reports the County Press.
The report states that:
previous administration acted either in ignorance or disregard of rules and regulations in relation to its procurement of consultancy services. Its appointment of High Point Rendel was also unlawful.
High Point Rendel have been the consultants on the Undercliff Drive Proposal which has attracted much interest in the Rotten Boroughs section of Private Eye.
We might’ve mocked it in the past, but it appears that whilst he was distracting the press with his cheesy thinking cap idea, Joe Duckworth has been very busy thinking about how to deal with the administration that he’s inherited.
Via:
Solent TV
County Press
[Image courtesy of BlipTV]
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February 23rd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Contracts kerfuffle involving High Point Rendel?
This rings a bell with us folk up in Scarborough.
Have a look at this:
http://www.scarborough.gov.uk/pdf/penn_report.pdf
Look at page 6, section 2.10, and take a wild guess who our Director of Technical Services was.
Clue: first name Derek.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
[…] Programme lead for compliance Bob Streets and purchasing manager John Spencer have joined the other five officers suspended,three of which held senior positions. […]
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
[…] Three cheers for the new heads at County Hall. Following on from the suspension of the senior council officers in February, we’ve just heard from the council that disciplinary proceedings will be taken against two of the officers who are currently suspended - the Director of Regeneration and Development and the Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships. […]
July 10th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
[…] We still have several senior officers still suspended (ON FULL PAY) waiting to hear how they will be disciplined (we also wait with baited breath to hear how they will be disciplined) over the illegal procurement of HPR as consultants on the Undercliff Drive Scheme. […]
July 19th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
[…] Maybe he wants to be close to the Undercliff, to keep a close eye on HPR, especially after the suspensions of council officers that occurred following his arrival. […]
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
[…] have now had sight of the full report into the procurement of consultancy for Undercliff Drive from High Point Rendel. The author of the report marked it as confidential, […]
September 26th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
[…] Rowell, one of the suspended officers in the Undercliff Drive scandal has according to this weeks Private Eye, just bought a house in North Yorkshire, near […]
October 11th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
[…] Monday’s announcement that Undercliff Drive suspended senior officers, Paul Wilkinson and Derek Rowell are no longer on the payroll of the Isle of Wight […]
November 29th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
[…] following the case will remember news of the three senior officer suspensions back in February this […]