Council Expenditure or Payment to Suppliers

Dear Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership,

I'd like to make a request under the Freedom of Information act for all transactions over £500 from 1st April 2017 to 31st December 2018. I am specifically looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and Social Care. This would include all suppliers falling under the categories :-

1. Payments to suppliers who provide fostering and adoption services to the Council
2. Payments to suppliers who provide care services to the council. This would include suppliers who provide care under each of below -
a. Children's Residential/ Nursing Care Providers
b. Adult Residential/ Nursing Care Providers
c. Elderly Residential/ Nursing Care Providers
d. Domiciliary Care Home Providers
e. Supported Living Care Home Providers
f. Care at Home Providers
g. Providers who carry out Homeless Services
3. Payments to suppliers who provide Special Education Services

In particular I am looking for itemized transactions for suppliers from 1st April 2017 - 31st December 2018 - preferably in CSV format. As a minimum - We would like the date, value and recipient of each transaction. I look forward to the information at the earliest.

Yours Faithfully,
Nikhil Prabhu

ACHSCPEnquiries, Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership

Hello,

Please see FOI request below

Kind regards,

Sarah Gibbon
Executive Assistant to Chief Officer | Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership
Business Hub 8 | 1st Floor North | Marischal College
M 07810 657645 | T 01224 522647

 Got an idea? Let’s hear it - https://ahscp.hunchbuzz.com

show quoted sections

Foi Enquiries, Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Prabhu,

 

Thank you for your information request of 8 March 2019. Aberdeen City
Council (ACC) has completed the necessary search for the information
requested. Our response is now detailed below.

 

I'd like to make a request under the Freedom of Information act for all
transactions over £500 from 1st April 2017 to 31st December 2018. I am
specifically looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in
Health and Social Care. This would include all suppliers falling under the
categories :-

 

1. Payments to suppliers who provide fostering and adoption services to
the Council 2. Payments to suppliers who provide care services to the
council. This would include suppliers who provide care under each of below
- a. Children's Residential/ Nursing Care Providers b. Adult Residential/
Nursing Care Providers c. Elderly Residential/ Nursing Care Providers d.
Domiciliary Care Home Providers e. Supported Living Care Home Providers f.
Care at Home Providers g. Providers who carry out Homeless Services 3.
Payments to suppliers who provide Special Education Services

 

In particular I am looking for itemized transactions for suppliers from
1st April 2017 - 31st December 2018 - preferably in CSV format. As a
minimum - We would like the date, value and recipient of each transaction.
I look forward to the information at the earliest.

Unfortunately, the finance system we use does not allow this information
to be downloaded using built in software and we are required to use
separate reporting software to extract the information.

 

Our ledger system is not set up to provide information in the categories
requested so we would have to download the information contained within
the various appropriate financial codes and then review invoices to
allocate to the correct category. We also have several suppliers that come
under two or more categories so once again the invoices all need to be
looked at individually to categorise them leading to an excessive cost
charge.

 

We have looked at the amount of transaction in one month for one of the
codes that would contain some of the categories in your list and it has
2,914 transactions. Over the 21 months that you have requested, that would
give us 61,194 transactions to go through to identify items over £500.

 

These cost estimates are just for one code in one service of the council.
There will more codes in other areas of the council in order to cover all
of the categories requested and the supplier could get paid monies for
more that one of the categories so costs will be higher that the figure
given.

 

ACC is unable to provide you with information on all transactions over
£500 from 1st April 2017 to 31st December 2018 as the cost of providing it
has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600). 
To explain this, it would involve an ACC Officer looking at 61,194
transaction details. This has been calculated at 5 minutes per file, at
the cost of £76,492.50 in total. These cost estimates are just for one
account in one service of the council. There will more accounts in other
areas of the council in order to cover all of the categories given in your
request.

 

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of
the FOISA, ACC hereby give notice that we are refusing your request under
the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits. Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will
be happy to advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

We hope this helps with your request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Grant Webster

Access to Information Officer

 

INFORMATION ABOUT THE HANDLING OF YOUR REQUEST

 

ACC handled your request for information in accordance with the provisions
of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Please refer to the
attached PDF for more information about your rights under FOISA.

 

 

Grant Webster |Access to Information Officer

Aberdeen City Council | Access to Information Team | Customer Feedback
|Customer

Marischal College |Business Hub 17,  3^rd Floor | Broad Street | Aberdeen
| AB10 1AQ

 

Dial: 01224 522166

[1]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk | Twitter: @AberdeenCC |
Facebook.com/AberdeenCC

 

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Laura-Lynn Hardy left an annotation ()

See this request which was successful:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...

LLH

Nikhil Prabhu left an annotation ()

Thank you so so much Ms. Laura-Lynn Hardy Ma'am!!

Nikhil Prabhu left an annotation ()

Thank you so so very much Ms. Laura-Lynn Hardy Ma'am!! You are a Godsend!! :=)

Nikhil Prabhu left an annotation ()

Your assistance was extremely helpful for us.