Ipswich Spy has a rather turgid account of Suffolk’s BT difficulty, which lights up with an obviously well informed postscript which is worth reproducing in full:
UPDATE: This decision to set up the joint venture was taken behind closed doors in a meeting of county councillors not open to the public on 22nd April 2004. The then leader of the council, Bryony Rudkin, declared a prejudicial interest and so left the meeting during the discussions, but we wonder if she had been involved in negotiating the contract. If she had such a personal conflict of interest that she couldn’t even be in the room when a behind closed doors meeting took a decision, surely her conflict was so great as to taint the negotiating process.
I have put in a freedom of information request for that meeting as well as details of any prejudicial interests that were announced by Bryony Rudkin.
Ipswich Spy raises the role that Bryony Rudkin may have played in the negotiations, and I don’t have that inside knowledge to comment one way or another except to say that I strongly doubt that anything improper – rather than simply stupid – was done in the negotiations or for that matter the winnowing out of competitors to BT.
Talking about the simply stupid, as Bryony Rudkin apparently had a prejudicial interest in the decision why on earth did she make such a glowing tribute to BT after the decision was made? Unlike the decisions before this is in the public domain. To repeat:
Bryony Rudkin, Leader of Suffolk County Council, said: “We put BT through an exacting procurement process to ensure they were up to the job. As a result we have confidence our partnership with them will be good for the people of Suffolk, offering the highest quality services and technology at a price which gives our taxpayers excellent value.
Considering the prejudicial interest, why on earth didn’t she get another senior Labour or Liberal councillor to make a statement so gushing that it was used in marketing copy?
