Council staff published a paper revealing they were prepared to pay as much as £480,000 to procure part of a business - just two weeks after refusing point blank to discuss any sum pertaining to the deal.
Last Tuesday the PA reported PKC was refusing to say how much it shelled out to take over Wyllie Recycling’s commercial waste collection service, after being asked by an individual using Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation.
A council information officer said such a disclosure could discourage companies from bidding for future acquisitions “due to concerns about future disclosure of their commercially sensitive information”.
The same officer went on to suggest opportunities for the council to make potential savings and achieve best value for money “could be jeopardized” if the amount paid to Wyllie Recycling was disclosed to any outsiders.
However ,the PA learned last week PKC then went and published minutes of a meeting held back in May during which the deal was discussed and an upper limit on how much it was prepared to pay to complete the acquisition was set.
It appears staff were under the mistaken impression they could include the upper limit in the minutes, which were meant to be approved at a meeting of the council’s strategic policy and resources committee on Wednesday, and consequently published them on PKC’s website as part of the agenda.
The document, which is understood to have been available to view and download for as long as 24 hours before it was finally deleted off PKC’s website after the PA questioned its publication, stated: “There was submitted a report by the executive director (housing and environment) ... on the council’s commercial waste recycling services.
“The contents of report ... in relation to the acquisition of a commercial waste and recycling collection service [were] noted.
“The value of the acquisition up to £480,000, subject to due diligence, [was] approved. The funding solution, as detailed in [the] report ... [was] approved.”
Asked last week about the information officer’s initial refusal to reveal the cost of the acquisition a council spokesperson said it had nothing to add to the officer’s response.
Asked this week about the publication of the minutes featuring the council’s upper limit a spokesperson said: “The specific details of the contract value in relation to the acquisition of the commercial waste business from Wyllie Recycling Ltd has always been and remains to be commercially sensitive, due to the legal agreement in place.
“This information was published in error on the council website and has since been removed.”
