South Wales Evening Post - 21 May 2007
Senior managers at Swansea Council are being investigated over the way an £83 million computer contract was awarded.
It is understood a preliminary investigation by Swansea Council's head of human resources has found a full investigation is needed.
It will look at the roles of former and current managers at Swansea Council, including former chief-executive Tim Thorogood and his former deputy Bob Carter.
It follows a damning report into the affair by audit firm PriceWaterhouse Cooper (PWC).
The investigation will look at all staff involved in the procurement process.
A council spokesman said: "Following PWC's report into aspects of the Council's eGovernment programme, the council's general purposes panel has instructed an independent person to inquire whether any officer, past or present, acted improperly."
Mr Carter was a key member of a number of committees that looked at the Capgemini proposals. He was chairman of one that concluded there were serious question marks over the company's projected benefits for Swansea Council.
He was also in charge of another committee set up to bring all the evidence together for senior councillors.
However, they say they were never told of the concerns over benefits.
Mr Thorogood was handed two letters from department heads, saying they were concerns over the scheme.
However, councillors claim these concerns were not passed on properly.
Council Leader Chris Holley claims he was told the letters were purely a matter for managers at the council and did not feel the need to follow them up.
Opposition parties are now calling for a wider investigation into councillors involved in the deal.
Labour leader David Phillips said: "It is perfectly correct we examine the role of officers in this, but that is not sufficient."
He wants to see an investigation into cabinet members, in the ruling coalition, to see if they did enough to check how the deal was going.
Conservative leader Rene Kinzett, who is also the chair of committee looking at the eGovernment programme, said: "Why are Liberal Democrat cabinet members able to just pass off responsibility for the e-Government programme onto officers of the Authority?
"What happened to taking political responsibility for when things go wrong?
"We still don't even know if senior Liberal Alliance councillors properly questioned the former chief executive about the reliability of the expected savings figures."
This is even after other heads of department at County Hall sent a letter casting huge doubts over the whole project."
"It is time for senior Liberal Alliance councillors to do the decent thing and admit responsibility," he added.
