PiP frameworks revised after European ruling

European Commission upholds procurement complaint
Parking Review November 2010

Lee RowleyWestminster City Council has been found to have infringed European Union rules on local government procurement by the European Commission (EC). The commission investigated a complaint about the city council’s decision to enable members of the Partners in Parking (PiP) procurement group to join in its use of a mobile phone parking system rather than go through their own tendering process.

The EC was investigating a complaint originally made to the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), part of the UK government’s Cabinet Office. The anonymous complainant said the phone parking contract should have been re-tendered.

The EC?agreed with the complaint and asked the OGC to take “appropriate and adequate measures for the purpose of terminating the infringement in question”.

On 20 November the EC reoported: “Westminster committed to ensure that the public bodies, parties to the framework agreement, were restricted to those expressly listed in the contract documents. Furthermore, the Office of Government Commerce has published and updated guidance on the matter, ensuring adequate identification of the bodies permitted to use framework agreements. Finally, Westminster City Council decided to limit the duration of the framework agreement to the period permitted by law.”

The framework agreement is now restricted to four years and limited to PiP’s original members: Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Islington and Camden and Transport for London.
Lee Rowley, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for parking, said: “We cooperated fully with the European Commission and OGC. It’s important to note that there was no punitive action taken by the EU against the council. Indeed, if the council had committed a serious wrongdoing then the case would have been escalated to the European Court.”

There is no suggestion that phone system provider Verrus was at fault during the process.

More investigations, more questions ...

Easiest way to clear all this up is for a full, independent investigation. Local authority 'business' must be transparent and accountable.

Westminster Council's parking department faces EU probe
By Ed Davey
BBC News, London

Westminster Council has insisted it did not break any rules
Westminster Council's parking department is being investigated by the European Union over alleged contractual irregularities, BBC London has learned.

The inquiry concerns Partnerships in Parking, a body set up by the council to allow local authorities to join forces to buy cheap parking services.

In February, BBC London revealed police are holding an inquiry into another contract awarded by the department.

Westminster Council has insisted it did not break any rules.

Partnerships in Parking (PiP) was set up by Westminster's head of parking Alastair Gilchrist and Councillor Danny Chalkley.

Transport for London and six local authorities in the city joined when it was first started up. They said they hoped to get a better deal for parking enforcement services from the private sector.

We are aware of this enquiry and have responded to the commission's request for information
Councillor Danny Chalkey

Canadian company Verrus was awarded the contract to provide pay-and-display services, pay-by-phone, parking tickets and debt collection to the councils.

But it is alleged that, when additional councils joined PiP, they broke European Union rules by automatically starting to use Verrus, rather than tendering it out.

The British government chose not to investigate the case. But the European Union launched its own enquiry - and ordered the UK government to account for its own decision not to.
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) then asked Westminster Council's legal team to draft a reply to the EU.

Infringement proceedings
An OGC spokesman told the BBC: "I can confirm that we have been in discussions with the European Commission and Westminster Council and we will be able to update you in due course."

A European Commission spokesman said: "There is indeed a case. We sent a letter of formal notice on 20 November 2009 - this is the first stage of our infringement proceedings.
"UK authorities replied on 22 January. This reply is currently under assessment - next step not yet decided.
"If we're content with [the] UK government reply, we close the case. If we're not, then we move to the second stage of infringement proceedings."

Councillor Danny Chalkley, Westminster Council's cabinet member for city management, said: "We are aware of this enquiry and have responded to the commission's request for information.
"The contract was properly awarded after a tender process carried out in accordance with the law and the council's procurement processes.
"We will continue to work with Verrus to provide effective parking services across central London."

'Too busy'
On Wednesday Mr Gilchrist was due to speak at a conference on parking services to "discuss the merits of the PiP framework agreement" (The agreement to have parking services supplied by Verrus through PiP).
However, he cancelled the event at the last minute. Mr Gilchrist told the BBC it was because he was "too busy" to speak.
It is the second time in as many months it has emerged that the council's parking department is under investigation.
In February, police began an investigation into allegations of fraud against two senior officers at Westminster Council.

That case concerned the awarding of another multi-million pound parking enforcement contract to a different private company.
Westminster insists that contract was also properly tendered.

That investigation followed a series of controversies connected to Westminster Council's parking department.

Earlier in February, BBC London revealed that Westminster's diplomatic parking bays had not had the correct authorisation for three decades, meaning millions of pounds of fines may be unenforceable.

In January it was caught ordering officers to find ways to use parking to make more revenue, in an apparent breach of the law.