Council slammed for bad practice

Exclusive by Ross Pearman

A Lancashire council has come under a stinging attack for poor construction management and for making itself vulnerable to unscrupulous contractors.

The corporate governance report on Rossendale Borough Council, released by the Audit Commission last week, revealed that the council failed to address the repair problems of more than 400 properties in the area and the maintenance of a road network that is bordering on the unusable.

Results showed that the council, which continually claimed that it was a victim of a lack of funds, was actually the seventh highest net spending council compared to those of similar size. Worse still, the council's managers failed to keep an integrated database on capital works and response repair data making it impossible to monitor spending on construction work. During this time, the council managed an 8% overspend on its response repair budget for 2001/02.

Researchers also discovered that in many departments - such as highways and housing - senior managers failed on communication issues and on handling contractual arrangements, especially those on risk management.

The report found that on one scheme the council failed to identify the risk that if one of the projects had to be halted, the council would be liable to pay the loss of profit to the contractor.

The report also found that managers admitted that the council had an "inadequate maintenance regime".

The council has been set a three-month improvement programme and only narrowly missed government intervention from secretary of state Nick Raynsford. If the targets are not achieved, Raynsford could be forced to send in a team to take the council into administration.

Refusing to be drawn on the individual cases, a council statement said it "is working hard to make sufficient changes".

Rossendale was ranked 237th out of the 237 district councils on Best Value criteria in 2000/01.