LOBO loan current value and brokerage invoices

The request was partially successful.

Ludovica Rogers

Dear Fife Council,

Regarding your LOBO loan portfolio please provide:

1. A spreadsheet with the following details:
- Loan principle
- Original Counterparty
- Current Counterparty
- Has the option been exercised
- If so, when
- Current interest rate
- Current fairvalue
- Name of broker who arranged the loan

2. All invoices for the broker fees

3. Treasury Management Advisors contracts, tender documents and invoices from 2001 - 2007

Kind regards,

Ludovica Rogers

Fife Council

Dear Ludovica Rogers,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 – REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your information request received on 03/03/2017 09:56 our ref: 16473. This is being dealt with in terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

We are presently assessing your request and may be in touch soon to ask for further clarification or to offer advice and assistance if we are not able to fulfil your request in its present form.

The legislation allows us up to 20 working days from the date that we receive a valid request, including any clarification we require, to make a final response. We will be in touch within 20 working days of receipt of your initial request to provide our response or to seek clarification where necessary. We hope to provide you with the information you are looking for at an earlier date where possible.

Yours sincerely

Deborah McKay
Information Officer

Deborah Mckay, Fife Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ludovica Rogers

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 – REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

 

I refer to your email dated and received 03/03/2017 09:56, our ref 16473. 

 

I am pleased to enclose the information you requested and trust that it
meets your requirements.

 

Information Request:

Subject: Freedom of Information request - LOBO loan current value and
brokerage invoices

Regarding your LOBO loan portfolio please provide:

1. A spreadsheet with the following details:
- Loan principle
- Original Counterparty
- Current Counterparty
- Has the option been exercised
- If so, when
- Current interest rate
- Current fairvalue
- Name of broker who arranged the loan

Please see attached.

2. All invoices for the broker fees?

In terms of Section 17 – No information held we no longer hold the
brokerage invoices.

3. Treasury Management Advisors contracts, tender documents and invoices
from 2001 – 2007?

We are unable to provide you with this information in terms of Section 33
(1)(b) commercial interests and the economy as disclosure would (or would
be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any
person or organisation.

 

 

I would like to draw your attention to the copyright situation in relation
to the material.

 

The council holds the copyright for all of the material provided and it
may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring
specific permission. This is subject to the material not being used in a
derogatory manner or in a misleading context. The source of the material
must be acknowledged as Fife Council and the title of the document must be
included when being reproduced as part of another publication or service.

 

If you are not satisfied with the way we have handled your request, you
have the right to request a review of the decision. Please write to: Head
of Legal Services, Finance & Corporate Services, Fife House, North Street,
Glenrothes, KY7 5LT or e-mail to [email address]. The law provides
for you to make this request up to 60 working days from when we received
your enquiry or 40 working days from when you receive this correspondence
whichever is the later date. Where the outcome of the review fails to
resolve the matter to your complete satisfaction you have the right to
apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a
decision.www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal

 

Fife Council will consider and seek to resolve any request to the Head of
Legal Services that falls outside these time scales.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Deborah McKay

Customer Experience Information Specialist

Information Management & Requests

Fife House

Glenrothes

Fife

KY7 5LT

 

03451 555555 extn 441266

 

                

 

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Ludovica Rogers left an annotation ()

IR needed for the TMA documents. Also in the spreadsheet they state that Butlers was the broker which is impossible so that needs to be challenged.

Dear Fife Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Fife Council's handling of my FOI request 'LOBO loan current value and brokerage invoices'.

With regards to my third point:
" 3. [Please provide] Treasury Management Advisors contracts, tender documents and invoices from 2001 – 2007"

Your response was: "We are unable to provide you with this information in terms of Section 33
(1)(b) commercial interests and the economy as disclosure would (or would
be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any
person or organisation."

The public interest case in favour of full disclosure of the documents is substantial given Treasury Management Advisors are responsible for steering millions of pounds of public money in financial markets, and therefore understanding the full brief under which these unregulated firms operate is crucial to understanding if public funds are being used responsibly, and potential conflicts of interest are being managed.

This is of great concern since the Competition Commission report into the Butlers-Sector merger in 2010, and C4 Dispatches established conflicts of interest in the way Treasury Management Advisors operated, whereby banks and brokers were paying kickbacks to advisors when councils took out LOBO loans via particular brokerage firms, at the expense of both councils, and local tax payers.

I also note these are now historical documents, and several of the TMA firms bidding during the respective period have either merged, or no longer exist. Therefore any concerns regarding commercial sensitivity are negligible, and any competition risk to respective firms is historical and can be considered minor.

I would therefore ask you to kindly disclose in full all the documents requests.

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

Kind regards,

Ludovica Rogers

Lynn Cunningham, Fife Council

Dear Ms Rogers

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 - REQUEST FOR REVIEW
I refer to your e-mail dated and received on 19 March 2017.

Your e-mail has been passed to the Head of Legal Services for review.

A response will be sent to you within 20 working days of receipt of your
e-mail.

If you are dissatisfied with the Councils response to your request for a
review, you have the right to make an application to the Scottish
Information Commissioner in terms of Section 47(1) of the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act.  Any such application must be made before the
expiry of the 6 months after the date of receipt of our review letter and
should be sent to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road, St Andrews Fife KY16 9DJ.

Yours sincerely

 

 

Lynn Cunningham

Info Review Contact

for Head of Legal Services

 

                

 

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Alison Marr, Fife Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Rogers,

 

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (the “Act”)

Request for Review Ref Q6.1.1/R23.17

 

I refer to your email dated and received 19 March which has been taken as
a request to review the Council’s response to your request for information
ref: FCIR16473. The matter has been passed to me in order to carry out the
review on behalf of the Head of Legal Services.

 

I note that on 3 March you submitted 3 questions regarding LOBO loan
current value and brokerage invoices.  The Council responded with
information in respect of question 1, with a Section 17 notice (no
information held) in respect of question 2 and confirmed that the
information requested in response to question 3 was subject to an
exemption in terms of Section 33(1)(b) commercial interests and the
economy. On 19 March you questioned the application of this exemption.

 

I have now investigated the matter and confirm that the information in
respect of question 3 was neither sought nor provided. The Council cannot
apply an exemption where the information has not been obtained. The
Council erred in this respect and I confirm that I overturn the original
decision. I confirm that I have now carried out an investigation with
Finance and Procurement. I confirm that the Council does not hold the
following information: Treasury Management Advisors contracts, tender
documents and invoices from 2001-2007. I therefore require to provide you
with a notice in terms of Section 17 – information not held.

 

The Council has a duty to provide advice and assistance in terms of
Section 15 of the Act. Finance have been able to provide me with a list of
payments made to Butlers from 2004 to 2007  and I now attach this for your
information. I trust this is of some assistance to you.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the Council’s response to your request for a
review in terms of the Act, you have the right to make an application to
the Scottish Information Commissioner in terms of Section 47(1) of the
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.  Any such application must be
made before the expiry of six months after the date of receipt of this
letter and should be sent to the Scottish Information Commissioner,
Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS. You also
have the right of appeal to the Court of Session (on a point of law only)
if dissatisfied with a decision issued by the Commissioner.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Alison Marr

Solicitor (on behalf of Head of Legal Services)

 

Conveyancing & Contracts Team

Fife Council, Fife House

North Street, Glenrothes KY7 5LT

Tel: 03451 555 555 ext 442206

 

                

 

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