Bradford to disband DSO amid controversy
Bradford Metropolitan Council is preparing to dismantle Bradmet, its direct service organisation (DSO) and split its services between the council's directorates amid allegations of anti-competitive practices.
The allegations surround a catering contract the council awarded to Bradmet in July.
A Conservative councillor, together with one of four external bidders, Caterleisure, has accused the council of bias in awarding the contract to cater for a number of leisure outlets across Bradford.
"In effect, Bradmet was allowed to create a tender exercise to suit itself and then to monitor its progress at all stages, thus enabling it a very unfair advantage," said Councillor Margaret Eaton, leader of the council's Conservative group.
The council has until the end of October to respond to questions raised by the Department of the Environment (DoE) following the allegations.
If found guilty of anti-competitive practices, there would be a retendering process and Bradmet might well be banned from reapplying, a DoE spokeswoman told Caterer.
Councillor Andy Mudd, chair of the council's compulsory competitive tendering committee, denied the allegations. "We believe that we have done everything in accordance with the law and will be responding to the secretary of state as requested," he said.
Leader of the council Tony Cairns added that the dismantling of Bradmet, likely to go through early next year, was not an admission of any culpability but was due to a loss of public confidence. "Bradmet, not wholly through its own fault, has lost the public's confidence, which in local government is a major thing," he said.
He added there would be no compulsory redundancies, and said in future Bradmet bosses would report directly to the heads of the relevant departments within the council.
