After we launched Armchair Auditor OnTheWight a couple of weeks ago, there has been much discussion surrounding how the head of finance at Isle of Wight council (IWC), Dave Burbage is paid.
The first the majority of the Island knew about Dave Burbage Ltd was when it was highlighted in by Media Watcher in the VB comments, then the amounts of the invoices involved were detailed about an hour later.
Since then, all sorts of media, near and far, have been reporting it.
Those who have been following the discussions will know that Dave is contracted and paid through Dave Burbage Consulting Ltd rather than being directly employed by the Isle of Wight council (IWC).
Details from the council
We thought it would be useful to get in touch with the Isle of Wight council and ask them to clarify the procurement process for Dave’s contract.
What follows is their unedited response.
Dave Burbage was appointed as Interim Director of Finance through contract with Gatenby Sanderson starting 30 July 2007. This contract was let following a process where five candidates were sourced from five interim providers and assessed.
In January 2008, the council negotiated with Gatenby Sanderson to terminate that agreement. This then allowed the council to contract directly with Dave Burbage Consulting Ltd and thus reduce the cost of contracting Mr Burbage.
An 18 month contract starting 1 February 2008 to run until 31 July 2009 (with no provision to extend) was awarded to Dave Burbage Consulting Ltd following approval – following established council procedures – of a waiver (allowing contract standing orders requirements for advertising and competition to be waived) by Procurement Board at its meeting on 31 January 2008.
On 9 April 2009, Procurement Board approved a contract letting strategy report for a 24 month contract (with provision to extend for an additional six months) for provision of an interim director of resources.
Procurement Board approved the award of the current contract on 25 June 2009 following the operation of an open tendering process. The tender was advertised on the iwight.com and supply2gov websites and through the Municipal Journal and Local Government Chronicle o-line advertising facilities. By the close of the tender period, six firms had submitted details of twelve prospective candidates. An initial long listing process reduced this to five which were then evaluated by Chief Executive, Director of Environment & Neighbourhoods and Head of HR. The two candidates with the highest evaluated scores were invited for formal interview. The interview panel consisted of Chief Executive, Director of Environment & Neighbourhoods and Head of HR and attended (in a non-voting capacity) by Deputy Leader, Cabinet Member for Economy and Cabinet Member for Resources (chaired by the Cabinet Member for Resources). The outcome of this very robust process was that the proposal submitted for Dave Burbage represented best value.
