BTCR lease - who paid?

The request was partially successful.

Dear Liverpool City Council,

In your response to the following FOI request :

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/lease_arr...

you said that LCC acquired £1.3 million worth of IT equipment through a lease with BTCR.

You also said that this expenditure was recharged to LDL, which is why it did not appear in LCC's statement of expenditure over £500.

Please answer the following questions, all in respect of this particular lease :

Q1 : which organisation (LCC, LDL or BT) ultimately paid the costs of the lease. For example, if organisation A paid the lease, but then recharged these costs to organisation B, then organisation B ultimately paid

Q2 : It is clear from the figures previously provided that BTCR made a margin on the transaction of £143,459.02. Did any other organisation make a margin on this transaction, through the process of recharging costs? If so, how much?

Q3 : At the end of the lease, which organisation will own the assets procured through the lease?

Q4 : You have previously stated that the equipment was procured via an OJEU-compliant tendering process. Please provide the reference number so that I can check the original tender notice

Yours faithfully,

Jenny Griffin

Jawahier Sharif Ali, Liverpool City Council

Dear Ms Griffin,

Acknowledgement of your request for information - FOI 188618
Thank you for your recent correspondence requesting information from the
City Council.  Your request was received in our offices on 01 March 2012
and, is being processed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

The information you have requested can be summarised as follows:

Q1 : which organisation (LCC, LDL or BT) ultimately paid the costs of the
lease. For example, if organisation A paid the lease, but then recharged
these costs to organisation B, then organisation B ultimately paid

Q2 : It is clear from the figures previously provided that BTCR made a
margin on the transaction of £143,459.02. Did any other organisation make
a margin on this transaction, through the process of recharging costs? If
so, how much?

Q3 : At the end of the lease, which organisation will own the assets
procured through the lease?

Q4 : You have previously stated that the equipment was procured via an
OJEU-compliant tendering process. Please provide the reference number so
that I can check the original tender notice

 If the above summary is incorrect or you wish to change any details, let
me know at the earliest opportunity.

A response will be sent to you as soon as possible and in any case within
the statutory deadline which is 20 working days from the working day after
your request was received.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent the release of information you have requested. There will be an
assessment and, if any of the exemption categories apply, the information
will not be provided to you.  You will be informed if this is the case

Please quote the above reference number in all future communications.

Regards 
Jawahier Sharif Ali (Fatima)
Information Officer
Legal Service
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street,
Liverpool
L2 2DH
Tel: 0151 225 3132
Email: [1][email address].uk 
Website: [2]www.liverpool.gov.uk

P  Please consider the environment before printing this email. Thank you

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Katie M. left an annotation ()

Regarding question 4, the tendering process, have a look at Tenders Electronic Daily (ted.europa.eu). There is no sign of this tender there. There's an interesting one about outsourcing LCC Procurement Services (all of them) last summer..... but nothing about this.

Dear Liverpool City Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Liverpool City Council's handling of my FOI request 'BTCR lease - who paid?'.

This request is overdue. Please explain why the Council has not responded within the sttautory timescale, and provide a full response immediately.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bt...

Yours faithfully,

Jenny Griffin

Kevin Symm, Liverpool City Council

1 Attachment

Please find attached response
Regards,

Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3132
[1][email address]

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Dear Kevin Symm,

Thanks for this reply.

I wish to request an internal review.

In your response to a previous FOI request - http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/le... - you said this :

"The council’s published report on expenditure over £500 excludes expenditure on goods & services procured on behalf of LDL, the cost of which is reimbursed to the council by LDL. This treatment is in line with the transparency reporting guidance as such expenditure is not a payment made directly against the local authority budget.Payments on this lease fall into this category as the cost of the lease rentals is charged on to LDL"

In this response you say the following :

"The City Council can confirm that it holds all of the information you have requested and provides the following:

1. Liverpool City Council ultimately paid the costs of these leases as they are offset against the contract price

2. No – Liverpool City Council paid invoice direct

3. BTCR.

4. The reference number dated 29 December 1999 is 1999/S252-208059.

I trust this information satisfies your enquiry"

There are two inconsistencies here. The first is that the reference number which you have supplied - 1999/S252-208059 - does not show up on a search of the OJEU database. Are you sure this is the correct reference?

The second inconsistency is more serious. In the previous response you said that the cost of this lease is charged to LDL. You now say that LCC bears the cost. These two positions can not both be true. This is the issue which I would like you to resolve, hence the request for internal review.

As an aside, could I say that I'm less than delighted to find that the taxpayer has spent £1.3 million buying kit which will shortly belong to a leasing company.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Griffin

Symm, Kevin, Liverpool City Council

Dear Ms Griffin

I will progress this request to an internal review and ensure a response is provided as soon as possible

Regards,

Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3132
[email address]

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Symm, Kevin, Liverpool City Council

Dear Ms Griffin

Just to be clear, can you confirm that the reference number of the previous response you refer to is 181777?

Regards,

Kevin Symm
Senior Information Officer
Legal Services
Liverpool City Council
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool
L2 2DH
TEL: 0151 225 3132
[email address]

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Dear Symm, Kevin,

Yes, the reference number is 181777

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Griffin

Dear Liverpool City Council,

On 4th April I requested an internal review of a FOI request. It is now 24th May and I'm still waiting for a response.

The full history can be found at the following address :

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bt...

Could you please complete the internal review, as required by law?

Yours faithfully,

Jenny Griffin

Glanville, Andrea, Liverpool City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Griffin

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response to your request
for an internal review.  I am currently looking at all the requests you
have submitted regarding the above issue and will attempt to address all
the issues you have raised.  The main issue I have encountered internally
relates to the personnel involved with the above lease have since left the
Council.  I appreciate that this has taken us a longer time than had been
anticipated in resolving these requests but would hope that you would bear
with me in order for me to finalise your requests.

 

I will be away from the office over the next two weeks but I have
requested information which I would expect to be provided on my return so
that I can look to provide you with a response w/c 11/6/12.

 

Once again apologies for the delay and thank you for your continued
patience with the Council.

 

Regards

 

Andrea Glanville I Information & Practice Manager
Liverpool City Council I Municipal Buildings I Dale Street I Liverpool I
L2 2DH
T: 0151 225  2709 I E: [1][email address]
Online: [2]www.liverpool.gov.uk

[3][IMG]

 

 

 

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Dear Ms Glanville,

Are you kidding? This review has been with you for an inordinate length of time already, and now you tell me that you're going on leave and therefore I should just be patient for a few more weeks?

I would remind you that this matter relates to millions of pounds of taxpayer money. Please instruct a colleague to act in your absence.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Griffin

Glanville, Andrea, Liverpool City Council

Thanks for your e mail, I am away from the office until 11/6/12 and I will
have no access to my emails during this time.  Any urgent enquiries please
direct to [email address] or contact the Information & Practice
Support Team  on  225 2709.  If your request is in relation to FOI/DPA
please forward this to [Liverpool City Council request email]  if this is a
new request it will not be considered received by the Council until it is
forwarded to this address.

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Dear Liverpool City Council,

Please see my request for internal review, a full copy of which correspondence can be obtained at :

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/10...

Andrea Glanville has responded to say that the review will not happen before her return on 11th June 2012. This review was requested 4th April, and I have received nothing but bland assurances and promises of action.

As I understand the situation, there is an expectation that reviews will be carried out within 20 working days unless there are extenuating circumstances. I have been informed of no such circumstances. I conclude, therefore, that the Council does not take its responsibilities towards the Freedom of Information Act seriously.

Please instruct another member of staff to conduct thye review immediately.

Yours faithfully,

Jenny Griffin

Andrea Glanville, Liverpool City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Griffin
Please find attached your request for a review of our response to you
dated 3/4/12.  As I had to come into work today I had the opportunity to
consider your request and the review, this has now been provided in the
attached response.  I also understand you have also been provided with a
response to your other oustanding request regarding this subject matter. 
Upon checking my records the 4 requests you have submitted regarding this
subject have now all been responded to. 
I will however be absent from work until 11/6/12 so please do not respond
to me directly but to the [1][email address]
Regards
A Glanville
Information Manager

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Dear Glanville, Andrea,

Thank you for your response, copied below :

"I have now had the opportunity to consider our response and I would respond as follows. The Council did provide you with all the information that you had requested and no exemptions had been applied to the information. Therefore for the purposes of the review I will provide you with the following information regarding clarification on the accuracy of the OJEU reference number and an explanation regarding the charging arrangements for the costs of the lease.

In response to point 1 I can confirm that the OJEU reference number provided to you in our response of 3 April 2012 is correct, I can offer no explanation as to why it is not being revealed on the OJEU database.

In response to point 2 the information you have been provided with is correct, however to clarify this point further the Council pays LDL an agreed annual contracted amount, the Council will also pay costs on behalf of LDL e.g. employees, leases. The costs LCC pay on behalf of LDL will be offset against the annual contracted amount, e.g. if the contracted amount is £60 million and we pay costs of behalf of LDL for £10 million this amount will be offset against the £60 million."

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Griffin

Glanville, Andrea, Liverpool City Council

Thanks for your e mail, I am away from the office until 11/6/12 and I will
have no access to my emails during this time.  Any urgent enquiries please
direct to [email address] or contact the Information & Practice
Support Team  on  225 2709.  If your request is in relation to FOI/DPA
please forward this to [Liverpool City Council request email]  if this is a
new request it will not be considered received by the Council until it is
forwarded to this address.

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