Woodlands Primary School in Gillingham commissioned a £750,000 building contract without proper authority from Medway Council, whose lack of process for approving the funding appears an absolute shambles according to their own report. The contract was awarded to a company owned by the school site manager (who is married to the Deputy Headteacher) without going through a tendering process as required by European law. This is just one of a number of serious breaches of Medway Council regulations.  A major cost increase of £525,000 was approved by Medway Council without questioning of the reasons for the overspend. A quote from the Report: "The summary of findings from internal audit dated 25 March 2010 reaches a conclusion that 'this entire project can perhaps be described, at best, as a catalogue of errors'". If this is at best, one shudders to think what the worst is! The failure of the project to involve the Health and Safety Executive, and the lack of any technical advice on H&S, led to considerable breaches of regulations, including enormous consequences once the presence of asbestos was established, and a number of structural stability faults were identified. Rectification of the structural faults cost the council at least another half million pounds (I found it difficult to follow all the additional sums mentioned in the report).

The following analysis of the Key Failings of project management from the Medway Council Report makes horrifying reading.

Medway Council	Woodlands Primary School	Site Manager & Main contractor
Project approved by officers without a full knowledge of the costs involved, plans or management control arrangements.  The project proceeded on the basis of funds available	Project not subject to Medway’s procurement rules.  Despite the school’s protestations, there is clear evidence that the Headteacher instructed the main contractor.  The school’s chair of governors confirmed that she thought the school was managing the project.	Conflict of interest of employee acting as main contractor.  Failed to ensure that Medway’s two core values were delivered
Project “delegated” to school without knowledge of how the school delivered previous self managed project (sports hall)	Following from the above, no evidence of good VFM (Value for Money)	Quality of work as evidenced by rectification costs
Project “delegated” to school without issue of any written guidance on how the project should be managed	Conflict of interest of employee acting as main contractor, without following appropriate procurement rules	Inadequate record keeping (alleged open book policy), resulted in contractor being unable to prove substance of his invoices
Member approval sought on inadequate cost/plans	Main contractor’s suitability as he is a specialist door engineer	Clear breaches of Heath & Safety issues
Members not asked to approve delegation to school, thereby, in Members’ minds, they were delegating to officers to manage this project (not the school)	Absence of scrutiny of invoices before payment, a clear breach of Medway’s Finance Manual for Schools.  No challenge of invoices submitted or requesting additional supporting information.
No attempts were made to monitor the capital budget, instead relying on the school to alert them to issues.  This also means that Members were mislead as to the project’s true financial position.  Any officer action here would have alerted them to the differing opinions held on managing this project	Invoice payment arrangements were solely for the benefit of the contractor.
A complete absence of understanding of the risks involved.This was not pusued with the required vigour.
A complete absence of understanding of the risks involved	Poor VFM obtained
Poor VFM obtained	Clear breaches of Heath & Safety issues
Clear breaches of Heath & Safety issues

Mr Simon Trotter, Deputy Director of Children's Services, has now left the Authority.