Bristol Council Contract Oversight Lacking, Raising Value Concerns

Hey, guess what’s happening with Bristol City Council? Auditors are worried about how they handle contractor deals. Apparently, the council has over 4,000 contracts for different things.

These contracts can be worth a little or a lot of money. Auditors aren’t confident about how well they watch these deals, because the records are inaccurate, or even missing. Plus, old contracts are still listed.

They use two computer systems for contracts: one for bids, the other to monitor. Experts say this makes things harder to keep up with. The council told audit committee members about this issue in late January.

A council officer said good records are vital. Managing contracts needs correct data, he noted, because incomplete data causes renewal and retendering problems. Tim O’Gara said they probably haven’t broken the law when managing these contracts.

Contractors fix bridges and care for people. People worry about project costs being too high in Bristol. Also, social care can cost too much there.

Auditors checked ten contracts and found errors. One contract lacked a council signature, while checks for finances were missing in another contract.

Key performance indicators were absent, and no risk levels were assigned to many contracts. The council uses Proactis software, but staff don’t really use it to manage deals. They are planning more training soon.