Authorisation of Grant Funding

Dear Sir or Madam,

Part 3 of Camden Councils Constitution - Responsibility for
Functions: GENERAL MATTERS RESERVED FOR EXECUTIVE DECISION -
GENERAL MATTERS RESERVED FOR COLLECTIVE EXECUTIVE
DECISION States under section 16. "To agree the award of grants of
over £25,000 in any one year and the withdrawal of grant aid
originally awarded by the Executive, such withdrawal not to include
temporary withdrawals or suspensions of up to six months (see
specific officer delegations)"

Please inform me of who in Camden Council authorised the below NFA
between Camden Council and the Camden Federation of Tenants and
Residents Associations (CFTRA) and why this new funding agreement
was not brought before the Executive Committee for approval in
accordance with the Councils own Constitution.

Commencement Date: 01/04/2009
Duration: 1 year (ending 31/03/010)

A negotiated Funding Agreement to provide services of the Council
to the amount of £96,677.

Other Grant support for the CFTRA to provide an independent tenants
voice to the wider tenant body (Schedule5) to the sum of £27,477.

Total amount of funding for services: £125,154
plus accommodation support of a subsidised lease to the amount of
£8,766.

Yours faithfully,

T. Morgan

Dear Peter Williams,

Thank you for your response.

You say in your response that a waiver of the Councils Contract
Standing Orders was applied to the CFTRA funding. As far as I am
aware a waiver can only be agreed at an Executive committee
meeting. Can you please direct me to or provide me with the minutes
of the meeting where the waiver is mentioned and agreed by the
Executive.

I am also requesting a review of your decision to withhold the name
of the officer who authorised the 2009/10 CFTRA funding.

I not not believe that the information is exempt personal
information when it involves awarding public contracts.

Public contracts are paid for by the public and the public has the
right to such basic information such as the name of the authorising
officer - as well as the reasons behind why the contract was
awarded.

The CFTRA has always been a badly performing contactor and it came
as a big suprise to some residents that the CFTRA received funding
again for the year 2009/10 - especially the level of funding and
within the current ecomonic climate. Especially so given that more
deserving community/voluntary groups would benefit from this
funding and provide a better service to tenants.

Yours sincerely,

T. Morgan

Dear Peter Swingler,

Thank you for your response that says:

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - Request for Information about the
name of the officer who authorised the 2009/2010 CFTRA funding -
Application for Internal Review

I refer to our acknowledgement email dated 27 July 2009.

We have considered your appeal against the decision in relation to
your request for access to information pursuant to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We have also considered information from the
Housing and Adult Social Care service regarding the Council's
response to your request.

Our decision is that your appeal is unsuccessful.

The reasons for our decision are:

The Panel considers that the information you have requested is
subject to an exemption under Section 40: Personal Information. The
release of the information would breach the first principle of the
Data Protection Act 1998, which requires that data should be
processed fairly and lawfully.

A second consideration is that certain conditions must be satisfied
for processing such information under the Data Protection Act 1998.
The conditions for processing are set out within Schedules 2 and 3
of the Act. At least one Schedule 2 condition must be satisfied for
processing to be in accordance with the first principle.

The Panel, taking account of the need to protect individual members
of staff from being exposed to any potential harassment or abuse in
carrying out their responsibilities on behalf of and subject to
policy and managerial decision making processes, came to the
decision that the conditions for processing the information have
not been satisfied in relation to your request.

Consequently the Panel decided that the information you have
requested is exempt from release under the Freedom of Information
Act. The exemption is absolute.

For all the above reasons, this reply constitutes a Refusal Notice
under the Freedom of Information Act.

If you are not satisfied with the manner in which your appeal was
handled you should contact the Information Commissioner within two
months of receiving this letter. The Information Commissioner will
not consider complaints outside of this timeframe, except under
exceptional circumstances. He can be contacted at:

If you are still not satisfied following the Internal Review, you
have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office.
They can be contacted at: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 01625 545 700
www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Peter Swingler

On behalf of the Internal Review Panel

FOI act

LB of Camden

12/8/09

Yours sincerely,

T. Morgan

Dear Andrea Comer,

Thank you for your response that says
" the Council's Procedure Rules and Standing Orders state in Part
4, 5.1 that “Waivers relating to contracts of £500,000 or less may
be granted by the relevant Authorised Officer subject to the
agreement of the Director of Finance”. Only waivers for contracts
in excess of £2m must be agreed by the Executive."

Yours sincerely,

T. Morgan