Barnet Council - Metpro Special - Weird Scenes inside the goldmine !

What a goldmine Barnet Council is for all manner of private contractors. We have Metpro, who trousered £1.4 million without a contract, to provide security services without licenses. Even more interesting, will be the amount of money paid to outsourcing specialists AGILSYS in the next round of invoices. I'd advise all watchers of such things to see how much this is going to be. It will tell us much. We have the £24 million paid to IBM for the SAP contract, which was originally annouced as a £8 million contract - http://www.silicon.com/legacy/research/specialreports/enterprise/0,3800003425,39128143,00.htm

There are all manner of strange invoices on the monthly files produced by Barnet.

I had to laugh. I was searching Barnet's website and I came across this link :-
http://www.barnet.gov.uk/section-6.1-taxation-vat-appendix-1-example-vat-invoice

This is the "Barnet Example VAT Invoice". It is interesting that the invoice is  for supplying an imaginary school in an imaginary road (Windburn Close). The VAT rate is incorrect - it is 20% for items such as this. There is no delivery date or despatch date. There is no named individual to associate the invoice with. So I guess we can take it as read that it's OK to pay companies, supplying imaginary schools, with no evidence of delivery and no proper reference data for goods at the wrong VAT rate? If this is Barnet Council's example of a correct invoice, then no wonder that we've had problems.


This is what HM Customs & Excise say a VAT invoice must contain :-

What a VAT invoice must show

A VAT invoice must show:

• an invoice number which is unique and follows on from the number of the previous invoice - if you spoil or cancel a serially numbered invoice, you must keep it to show to a VAT officer at your next VAT inspection
• the seller's name or trading name, and address
• the seller's VAT registration number
• the invoice date
• the time of supply (also known as tax point) if this is different from the invoice date - see below
• the customer's name or trading name, and address
• a description sufficient to identify the goods or services supplied to the customer

For each different type of item listed on the invoice, you must show:

• the unit price or rate, excluding VAT
• the quantity of goods or the extent of the services
• the rate of VAT that applies to what's being sold
• the total amount payable, excluding VAT
• the rate of any cash discount
• the total amount of VAT charged

If you issue a VAT invoice that includes zero-rated or exempt goods or services, you must:

• show clearly that there is no VAT payable on those goods or services
• show the total of those values separately

If you make retail sales and you make a sale of goods or services for £250 or less including VAT you can issue a simplified VAT invoice – see the section in this guide on simplified VAT invoices.

Tax point or time of supply

The tax point, or time of supply, is the date when a sale is considered to take place for VAT purposes. There are rules that tell you if this is the date of the actual supply, the date of the invoice or some other date, depending on the circumstances.
It's important to put the right date for the time of supply on your invoice, because both you and your customer will need this information to make sure the VAT on the invoice is accounted for on the right VAT Return.
You must also issue invoices within a certain time of the actual supply taking place - see the section in this guide on time limits on issuing invoices.

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Maybe Barnet Council would find this interesting :-
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&propertyType=document&id=HMCE_CL_000099#P191_14724
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From what I've seen in the Metpro report, VAT is a rather "contentious" issue. Now if you've read the rules above, what do you notice about this invoice? (click on image for a more readable version)

The audit committee meeting is on Thursday. There is a rather intriguing report in the Ham & High about this report :-

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/serious_failings_by_barnet_council_over_security_company_revealed_1_916681

I couldn't help but note Lord Monroe Palmer's comments at the end of the article :-

“I would love to have an absolutely barnstorming investigation where we deal with absolutely everything in this audit. However, I am a Liberal Democrat chairman in a Tory-run council. I am going to bring out as much as possible at the committee meeting but I don’t want the rug pulled out from under me before that meeting. It will all be there. People can ask any questions and I will ensure that officers there will seek to answer those questions.”

What on earth can he mean about "having the rug pulled out from under me before the meeting" ?

If he is saying that he feared political interference in the process of the investigation, then that is in itself a massive scandal. Lord Palmer should be left to get on with the job without fear of anyone "pulling the rug out". Whatever side of the political divide you sit one, surely any honest person would want Lord Palmer to do the best job possible. Many people have asked me whether I trust him to do the job. Let me say this. Anyone like Lord Palmer who stands as a Lib Dem in a Borough such as Barnet and serves 25 years on the Council as he has done, largely being ignored, vilified and insulted by a group of Tories, many of whom have never had a proper job, has to be pretty publicly spirited. Anyone who thinks you become a Lib Dem councillor in such circumstances for the perks and the career opportunities is quite clearly bonkers. I believe he will do the best job he possibly can.

I still believe we should have an independent inquiry, but I don't doubt the integrity of Lord Palmer in his efforts to do the est job possible. I suspect the meeting will be one of the most important ones ever in the history of Barnet Council. There are many questions yet to be answered and many facts still to emerge. What no one could disagree with is that something has gone seriously wrong in Barnet Council and until it is fixed, then it would be criminally negligent to continue with the OneBarnet outsourcing program. I hope Lord Palmer stands up and tells the world that on Thursday.