Very interesting post over at Rog T’s (THIS LINK IS NOW BROKEN – SEE REASONS WHY BELOW) – it seems he has been leaked a document which describes the (very) loose process the council is using to choose a private strategic partner for a £290m project. Makes worrying reading, all right. I went through a more selection stringent process when I joined the girl guides.

Will add more as it comes available.

The Barnet bloggers take a risk by publishing this document out – there will be nervous moments as its authenticity is confirmed and the council will hit the roof either way. But the hell with the council – it wouldn’t be the first time questions were asked about its procurement processes. And I know bravery when I see it – I publish this in solidarity with Rog T and will add more as I get my head round the document.

Update 21 January 2012

It would seem that the document’s authenticity has been confirmed:

From Rog’s blog: “At 19.10 last night, I received a letter from Barnet Council legal team. The letter suggested that as the document I published on Thursday concerning the One Barnet tender process was marked confidential, I was not allowed to publish it and must remove it from my website immediately. They also suggested that I may be liable for any legal costs of claims arising from publishing it. As it the letter arrived at such a late hour on a Friday evening as I was going out, I removed the document from my website pending legal advice.”

Will provide more updates as they come through. Bloggers are organising to support Rog AND the public’s right to know how councils like Barnet select private companies for these massively costly private sector contracts. The document Rog T published on his site demonstrated that process of selection/elimination very clearly and that’s why it’s vital that bloggers are supported as they fight to bring details of council deals with private companies into the public domain. Millions are being spent with private companies in this era of so-called austerity and people have a right to know which company gets what and why. This is a big issue and I’ll be supporting Rog all the way on it.

Update: Mr Reasonable has blogged about the issue. He’s right, too, when he says he can’t understand why the council wants to hide documents which describe how councils choose private companies for projects that are worth a fortune. As he says:

“There are 350,000 people in Barnet whose lives will be affected by this outsourcing project [Barnet council’s plan to outsource a swathe of services to one of four companies currently bidding] yet no more than a handful are privy to the detail or involved in the decision making. What is taking place here is wholly undemocratic so it is not in the least bit surprising that people are leaking details and even less surprising that there is a desire to make these leaked documents public. Rather than hassling Roger T perhaps the Council should be spending more time engaging with the residents to explain what the hell they are doing and asking why the staff are so unhappy that they feel the need to leak these documents. Doing long term mega-outsourcing deals without public consensus and scrutiny is a both a disgrace and, in the long term, politically unsustainable.”

Amen.

Update: Mrs Angry has posted a very good blog on the issue as well.