Council's £120,000 consultants' fee branded 'a disgrace'

[dutchman]

Criticism has been levelled at council bosses for spending £120,000 on consultancy fees in awarding a new leisure contract.

The money was paid as part of the process undertaken by the Nuneaton and Bedworth authority to decide which firm should manage the borough’s four sports centres over the next seven years.

After tenders were submitted and considered, the contract was given to SLM – under the brand name Everyone Active – with a May 1 deadline to take over from NBLT, which has run the Pingles, Bedworth, Etone and Jubilee centres for the last 10 years.

Coun Keith Kondakor accused cabinet members of “a lack of transparency” over the deal – and said he was “amazed” to discover the cost of using outside consultants.

Four invoices, between August 2013 and February this year, were submitted by London-based Leonie Cowen and Associates for a total of £112,174, while a further £8,000 was earned by Strategic Leisure Ltd, from Cheshire, for work done earlier last year.

Coun Kondakor said: “This is little short of disgraceful

“To employ consultants like this is just a money-pit. The only thing we can hope is that some good was learned from the input of the consultants, because, otherwise, it has all been a bit of a mess.”

Simone Donaghy, the borough council’s director of finance and procurement, said: “The comment from Keith Kondakor makes reference to the cost of consultancy support that the council had throughout the tender process, which includes drafting the specification, evaluation and preparation of the contract and lease.

“The cost is completely relevant to a multi-million pound contract of this type and it is inaccurate to suggest it only covered legal advice for the transfer of employment contracts.”

[rebbonk]

I can't understand these councils paying money out like this.

Surely they ought only be paying on results?

If a consultant says to me he can save me money, I'm interested, but only on a sharing of the money saved. I'd never pay an up front fee. - and I've worked quite successfully as a consultant on exactly those terms.