‘Shock’ shared at Cambridgeshire County Council contract procurement breaches
Cambridgeshire County Council failed to follow proper processes when handling contracts worth millions of pounds.
The authority identified 20 contract procurement breaches between July 2024 and March 2025, 13 of which were also a breach of procurement law.
Examples of the breaches found included officers continuing to use an old translation and interpretations services supplier, when a contract had been let to a new supplier, and failing to get committee sign off for school capital projects worth £15.8million.
There was also a case of the authority continuing to use external educational psychologists to help with pressures faced in the SEND services, with no compliant procurement in place.
Officers at the county council told councillors at an assets and procurement committee meeting on Tuesday that the breaches had now been remedied, or were in the process of being remedied.
A report presented to councillors also stated that none of the breaches found involved fraud, corruption or financial irregularities.
It said: “Whilst the number and value of the breaches is perhaps greater than anticipated when the process was established, in all cases effective measures have been put in place to remedy the breach.
“The breaches do not, therefore, represent an ongoing risk to the council.
“They do, however, represent a significant strengthening of governance and controls in identifying these issues and the opportunity for lessons learned to be implemented robustly by the council.”
Cllr Chris Boden (Conservative) said he had been concerned about procurement compliance at the county council and said he was pleased the authority was now monitoring what is going on.
However, he said he was shocked at the number of breaches identified.
He said: “I am absolutely and utterly shocked by the content of this report.
“I knew we had a problem, we all knew we had a problem, it wasn’t just me, but for it to be quite as large as this really does surprise me.
“We have got 13 instances given here in a nine month period of breaches of procurement law being found, coming to a total value of over £27million, it is an absolutely enormous amount and it is a real problem, I don’t think officers would disagree it is a real problem and that is why actions are being taken.
“It is really important that we as a committee keep a very close eye on how this improves, and I really do hope and expect that it will improve, but we have got to assure ourselves that there will be improvement on this lamentable report that we have got here.”
Cllr Boden asked for the committee to receive regular updates on progress addressing the issue at future meetings.
Cllr Ross Martin (Conservative) said he agreed with Cllr Boden that the committee should get regular updates.
He added that he felt the report “plays down to some extent the seriousness of some of the breaches”.
Cllr Martin said while there may not have been any fraud, corruption, or financial irregularities, he said it was still serious as there was “a lot of money at play here”.
Michael Hudson, executive director for finance and resources at the county council, said the level of breaches found was a surprise for officers as well, but added that it was good they were now identifying the issues.
He stressed that not all of the breaches were a breach of procurement law, and said a large number had now been remedied, or are in the process of being remedied.
Mr Hudson added that the county council was now also one of a “handful” of authorities that report breaches like this.
Cllr om Hawker-Dawson (Liberal Democrat) said reporting the breaches and work to remedy them was “definitely the right thing to be doing”.
Cllr Ros Hathorn (Liberal Democrat) said she recognised the concerns raised by some others, however, she said: “If you say ‘we are going to put things right’ and then there was nothing to put right, what are you doing, so I think it is absolutely not a surprise that things are coming out, and that is right and that shows an honesty and an integrity to the process.”
Cllr Hathorn asked if officers could let the committee know the number of contracts the council has in total, to show what the size of the problem is in terms of the number of breaches.
She also raised a specific issue regarding the guided busway.
The report highlighted that an internal audit had uncovered a number of breaches of the council’s contract procedure rules and procurement law in relation to spending on the busway.
The value of the breach was over £13million. The report said work had taken place to remedy the breaches.
An officer said they did not have the number and value of all the council’s contracts to hand, but said they could send over this information after the meeting.
Mr Hudson said the county council had an “awful lot of contracts”, but said even one breach “is enough”.
Addressing the busway point he said he was aware that a report will soon be going to the highways committee to update councillors on maintenance plans.
