PFI Advisers - Conflict of Interest

The request was refused by Birmingham City Council.

Dear Birmingham City Council,

Which companies have advised your local authority on each of its PFI projects and contracts from inception, through procurement, during construction and operation on issues relating to structural, legal, financial, governance, audit and performance review. Please provide that information by each PFI scheme, providing the HMT unique reference number.

Please provide documentation demonstrating how your local authority selected the advisers referred to above? Please provide any internal or external process documents (e.g. from HM Treasury/ Partnerships UK) in relation to the selection, a copy of invitations to tender and tender documents.

Please provide documents demonstrating how your local authority, as part of that selection, ensured that the auditors and lawyers, accountants and business consultants referred to above were not conflicted in any way with any of the organisations involved previously or currently with your PFI project(s). This could include documents, statements and correspondence between the local authority and its auditors relating to any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest.

Please provide all policies/protocols or any other documentation which demonstrate how your local authoirty continues to ensure that auditors and consultants continue to be free of conflicts of interest.

Yours faithfully,

Megan Ingles

PeopleFOI, Birmingham City Council

Dear Megan

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

 

Thank you for your request for information held by the Council under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 [FOI] which was received
on 19/05/2017

 

We will contact you again once it has been ascertained what data is held
by Birmingham City Council. In some circumstances a fee may be payable and
if that is the case, we will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to
you, and you will be required to pay before we will proceed to deal with
your request.

 

If you require any further information or are not happy with our response
please do not hesitate to contact me quoting the reference number above in
any future communications.

 

Regards

 

PSS Central

Directorate for People

Birmingham City Council

 

Telephone 0121 464 0085/0121 303 4720/464 5180

Email: [1][email address]  

 

 

 

 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]

FOI Mailbox, Birmingham City Council

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Ingles

 

Please see the attached for your Freedom of Information request. 
Information relating to schools PFI will be sent to you directly from the
service area.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Corporate Information Governance Team

10 Woodcock Street

Aston

Birmingham

B7 4BL

Telephone: 0121 303 2080

 

 

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PeopleFOI, Birmingham City Council

 

Dear Megan

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

 

I am writing in respect of your recent enquiry for information held by the
Authority under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please find the answers to your questions:

 

Which companies have advised your local authority on each of its PFI
projects and contracts from inception, through procurement, during
construction and operation on issues relating to structural, legal,
financial, governance, audit and performance review. Please provide that
information by each PFI scheme, providing the HMT unique reference number.

 

Please provide documentation demonstrating how your local authority
selected the advisers referred to above? Please provide any internal or
external process documents (e.g. from HM Treasury/ Partnerships UK) in
relation to the selection, a copy of invitations to tender and tender
documents.

 

Please provide documents demonstrating how your local authority, as part
of that selection, ensured that the auditors and lawyers, accountants and
business consultants referred to above were not conflicted in any way with
any of the organisations involved previously or currently with your PFI
project(s). This could include documents, statements and correspondence
between the local authority and its auditors relating to any conflict of
interest or potential conflict of interest.

 

Please provide all policies/protocols or any other documentation which
demonstrate how your local authority continues to ensure that auditors and
consultants continue to be free of conflicts of interest.

 

Please see response below:

 

o Responding to this FOI will take in excess of 18 hours and cannot be
done for a Council the size of Birmingham with 35 separate entities
 over 4 separate contracts to review over such a protracted period of
time.

 

o The City Council administers 4 grouped Schools PFI contracts covering
35 School/Academies.

 

o The earliest contract dates back to 2002 and the more recent 2013.

 

·         The information requested would necessitate the review of 2032
files (archived boxes)which relate to Education Infrastructure, Total
files related to contracts (PPP1, PPP2, BSF, Individual PFI Schools): 282.
we identified related files with possible contract link through multiple
key identification searches within system generated reports, while taking
care to avoid duplicating entries. However feel all files would have to be
reviewed to ensure the boxes were labelled correctly as the files were
moved into storage as part of an office move which was not planned with
much notice in order to separate and label correctly. This would result in
an officer reviewing 2 boxes a day for 203  working weeks at £25 per hour
would equate to £177k.

 

o As well as the above, the information requested would necessitate the
review of 3,156 separate monthly reports.

 

·         Please note that any information submitted would have to be
reviewed and approved by the management companies prior to release.

 

Whilst we have undertaken a thorough search of the information held by
Birmingham City Council, it may be that, due to the size and amount of
information held by Birmingham City Council, some information has been
inadvertently missed. If you have any information which may assist us in
determining or locating any missed information, we would be grateful if
you would contact us with details of this information, so that we can make
a further search.

 

Where Birmingham City Council is the copyright holder of any information
that may be released, re-use for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes is permitted without further reference to the City Council. Where
the re-use is for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, the applicant
should notify the City Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms
for re-use.

 

If you are not satisfied with the decision, you may ask for an internal
review by officers not involved in the handling of this original request.
Please contact Birmingham City Council’s central FOI Team at this address:

Information Governance Team

Performance and Information (WS)

PO Box 16366

Birmingham

B2 2YY

            Tel: 0121 303 4876                     email:
[1][email address]

 

After that, if you are not satisfied with the Council’s decision you may
apply to the Information Commissioner for an independent review at this
address:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700                      Web: [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Regards

PSS Central

Directorate for People

Birmingham City Council

 

Telephone 0121 464 0085/0121 303 4720/464 5180

Email: [3][email address]  

 

 

 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]