Delayed External Audit reporting and AVG Solutions Ltd.
Dear Kirby Muxloe Parish Council,
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the followng information:
I understand that your External Audits have not been completed for several years and that the current External Auditors (PKF Littlejohn LLP) cannot complete their Annual Audits until the previous External Auditor (Grant Thornton LLP) has completed its audit work. I have seen the PIR from PKF dated 25th March 2022.
1) Please provide helpful information (e.g. copies of correspondence to/from both External Auditors) that explain:
i. what is preventing Grant Thornton LLP from completing their earlier Audits;
ii. how this significant Accountability problem is to be overcome, and
iii. the planned timescale to do so.
2) I understand that you have contracted 'AVG Solutions Ltd' as data handling consultants.
Please provide helpful and clear information that explains:
i. which meeting Minutes record the tendering and decision-making process through which this company was last appointed;
ii. the relationship between former Cllr Anthony Victor GREENWOOD and this company;
iii. the Registration number of this business (as held by Companies House and likely printed on contract and invoice letters held by the Council);
vii. a copy of the latest Invoice (of whatever date), as received from this company.
Yours, etc
Nigel Ward
Dear Mr Ward
Freedom of Information Act Request
I acknowledge your request for information received on 22nd May 2023.
Your request is being considered and will be processed by 19th June 2023 within the statutory timescale of 20 working days.
There may be a fee payable for this information to cover sundry costs. This will be considered and you will be informed if a fee is payable. In this event, the fee must be paid before the information is processed and released, the time limit for response would then be suspended until receipt of the payment.
For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions that may prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply, then the information will not be released. You will be informed if this is the case, and given details of your right to appeal.
If the information you request contains reference to a third party, then they may have to be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to release the information to you.
Further information is available from the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 745
Website: https://ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Ms R Atkinson
Clerk to Kirby Muxloe Parish Council
Dear Mr Ward
Can you please confirm whether you require the requested information yourself or alternatively whether you are seeking this for someone else ?
Kind regards
Rachel Atkinson
Parish Clerk
Dear Ms ATKINSON,
Thank you for acknowledging my Freedom of Information request.
In light of the following excerpt from the Report in the Public Interest for your Council (dated 1st may 2013), I am disappointed that you have not evinced any indication of "structured learning" during the decade thereafter:
"Non-compliance with laws, regulations and codes of practice:
R7 Review arrangements for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000."
1) You have failed to state whether or not your Council holds the requested information (a breach of S1(1)(a);
2) You have failed to communicate this information, if held (a breach of S1(1)(b):
3) You have failed to provide a FOIA Reference Number;
4) You have sought to deny disclosure without the prior consent of one or more third parties when appropriate redaction entirely satisfies the terms of the Act.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, you have evinced a significant departure from the primary requirement to facilitate, wherever possible, the fullest permisible disclosure. This does not sit well with R7 (as cited above).
In particular, you have sought to extract a fee for the provision of data (amounting to only very limited search terms) that cannot feasibly amount to the 18 man/hours mandated by the Act, instead moving directly to the invocation of possible exemptions (with which, be it noted, I am throughly familiar).
Collectively, these failures convey the impression that your Council has something (perhaps a great deal) to hide.
Further, you have evinced the effrontery to enquire whether or not I act on behalf of another. The Act affords you no mandate to do so. Your response, as in the case of every other FOIA response, will be a response published "to the world" (i.e. published into the public domain). However, I can confirm that I act on my own behalf.
I would respectfully urge you to deal with my request in a proper and lawful manner and I place you on notice that any departure from the terms of the Act may be included in appropriate correspondence not only with the ICO but also with your Council's External Auditor.
I trust you will now proceed without further obstruction or prevarication.
Yours, etc
Nigel WARD
Dear Mr Ward
Freedom of Information Act Request
I write further to my email dated 23rd May 2023.
Unfortunately, it has become apparent that this will take longer than originally advised, due to the complex circumstances.
I am therefore writing to confirm that a response to your request will now be provided to you by 14th July 2023.
In the meantime, please be assured that this matter is being fully considered.
Yours sincerely
Ms R Atkinson
Clerk to Kirby Muxloe Parish Council
Dear Mr Ward
I write further to my email dated 18th June 2023, in relation to your request (Ref 190523/WDTK/NW) dated 19th May 2023.
1. As your request spans several years, locating this information is somewhat time consuming. However, we continue our search for the information you seek and aim to provide this as soon as possible. In the meantime, please be advised that PKF Littlejohn LLP are addressing this matter, for which I am unable to confirm the timescale.
2.i While quotations for data processing services were sought at the time, Council do not hold this information. However, please find attached the minutes dated 29th September 2016, whereby minute 111/16-17.iv resolves the Consultancy agreement be approved.
2.ii Council do not hold any information in terms of 'the relationship between former Cllr Anthony Victor GREENWOOD and this Company'
2.iii Council do not hold any information on 'the Registration number of this business'
2.vii While I unable to access hard copies of invoices for 2021/22, please be advised that the latest invoice received from AVG Solutions is dated 10th August 2021
Further information is available from the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 745
Website: https://ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Ms R Atkinson
Clerk to Kirby Muxloe Parish Council
Dear Ms R Atkinson,
Thanks for your partial reply.
1) You state that PKF L ITTLEJOHN LLP are addressing this matter. What does this mean? Are you suggesting GRANT THORNTON LLP have completed their work? When will the Audit Reports for 2015/16 and later years be issued and what is the cause of this long delay? This is a matter of extreme PUBLIC INTEREST and some helpful explanatory information would be very much appreciated.
2(i) Thank you for confirming the Council has no records of the tendering process or of the decision to appoint AVG Solutions Ltd. As it is a statutory duty to record these decisions in the minutes, I can only infer there was no tendering process and no proper decision was taken to employ the services of this company.
The minute reference ‘Cou/111/16-17.iv’ you note only records “To approve a Consultancy Agreement”; it does not mention AVG Solutions Ltd or indeed any meaningful details whatsoever. I suggest these records are inadequately structured.
Can you please send me a PDF of this ‘Consultancy Agreement’?
2(ii) I would have expected that Mr Greenwood would have signed off his work for the Council on documents identifying AVG Solutions Ltd. This information would form a part of your records.
Can I suggest that you scrutinise more thoroughly the work done by this company on behalf of the Council – your answer of 'not held' seems rather implausible.
2(iii) You claim not to hold this company number. However, it is usual for the company number to be included on all its contracts, reports, letters, invoices and quotations, etc. Please provide some recent examples of these or similar documents – ideally as a PDF.
2(vii) You provided an invoice date, but not the invoice. Please provide a PDF copy of this invoice.
You are reminded that when a local authority enters into a commercial contract with a third-party business, it cannot be unrecorded and shrouded in secrecy. Each stage of the arrangement must be fully documented, with records retained and published in accordance with the authority’s Standing Orders, Financial Regulations and primary legislation.
Safeguarding public money by making and retaining properly detailed records is crucial, especially when the Audit Reports are many years overdue because of a catalogue of governance and accountability weaknesses (I have read the March 2022 PIR).
Yours, etc
Nigel Ward
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