If you are seeking tales glorifying the new era of supposed government efficiency, look away now. For a shining example of how not to handle a simple procurement contract, we turn to Westminster City Council, sometimes described as a model of Tory local government.
The deal to run car-parking in Westminster is probably the most lucrative in the industry. With more than 600,000 mostly wealthy drivers entering the borough each day, the chances to ticket with abandon are plentiful.
So competition to win the most recent four-year deal, valued at between £40 million and £50 million, was intense.
Not much for Westminster officials to do but check that the best bidder was competent and nod in their direction, you might think. Instead, it managed to spend six months and around £1 million (how?) pondering the options before it decided to stick with the incumbent, NSL. Along this tortured route it issued a press release indicating that support services group Mouchel was the winner, only to pull the statement from its website citing "the discovery of a flaw in the contract document".
There is legalese to describe what this means, but it amounts to this: Westminster made a hash of it.
It then had to pay NSL extra to continue its work, while running through the bidding process once again before deciding to appoint NSL.
Apcoa, one of the losing bidders, has already sued the council once claiming it was cheated out of the contract amid dark hints of favouritism. Apcoa argues that it should have been declared the winner having submitted the best bid and wonders why it wasn't allowed to take part in the new tender process. (Westminster suddenly decided to raise the minimum turnover threshold for bidders by just enough for Apcoa to be disqualified. It is not clear why.)
Apcoa tried to injunct the last tender but the High Court seems to have decided that the contract was just too crucial to be halted.
The court agreed, however, that the council acted unlawfully even while dismissing Apcoa's claim. Mouchel, we revealed yesterday, is launching its own legal challenge which is sure to cost the council many thousands to fend off.
Apcoa, say sources, is now poised to come back with another suit, claiming damages for all the lost profits of perhaps £5 million.
The judge's ruling in the earlier hearing suggests Apcoa has got a decent chance.
This raises the possibility that Westminster — or rather, its taxpayers — will end up having to pay NSL to run the contract and at least one of Mouchel and Apcoa compensation for losing out.
All this for a parking contract that remains in limbo.
At this point it seems right that a formal inquiry be launched into just what is going on at Westminster.
