Councillor Could Face Inquiry Over The Award Of £1m Contract

A leading councillor is expected to face an inquiry by the public-sector watchdog over claims he helped award a £1m public contract to a firm of which he is a director without declaring an interest.

Jim Coleman, the deputy leader of Glasgow City Council, is accused of potentially breaching the Standards Commission’s code of conduct by not declaring his interest in The Wise Group when the council committee, which he was chairing, awarded it the contract.

The two-year deal, worth more than £540,000 annually, will see the Wise Group run a community service-style scheme for fine defaulters, known as Supervised Attendance Orders, on behalf of the council’s social services department.

It had previously been run by Apex Scotland, which was also bidding for the contract, with senior management there now claiming 15 staff will be made redundant because of the loss of the tender.

It is still unclear if Mr Coleman has breached any rules, with senior council sources claiming the acid test will be how the Standards Commission views the matter.

Mr Coleman receives no financial benefit from the firm, of which he has been a director for eight years.

According to the council, the matter was also “an officer recommendation” which went through without debate or a vote. A spokesman said: “It is for each councillor to decide when they should declare an interest in a given issue. Councillor Coleman was clearly of the view that there was no need to do so in this case. It should be remembered that councillor Coleman has a non-financial interest and was appointed to the position by the council.”

He added: “The contract was awarded after a fair and detailed evaluation of the tender candidates. The winning bid came from easily the best performer at both the written and interview stages of this evaluation.”

But the council’s opposition SNP group will now make an official complaint to the Standards Commission about the Labour member, who has been a councillor for 20 years.

Councillor Billy McAllister, deputy leader of the SNP group at the council, said yesterday: “Councillor Coleman appears to be in breach of the councillors code of conduct. This matter should be investigated as a matter of urgency. I Intend to report the matter to the Standards Commission.

“Every councillor is fully aware of the rules around their roles and responsibilities. It’s time for a firm and decisive action to be taken.”

Standards Commission guidance states: “If the councillor has a non-financial interest which relates to a matter under consideration that interest must be declared where the interest would, to a member of the public acting reasonably and knowing all the relevant facts, consider the nature of the interest could unduly influence the councillor.

“In the case of appointments or nominations to outside bodies, the interest (of membership or holding office in the outside body) should be declared unless the interest would be regarded as irrelevant or insignificant.”

Apex Scotland said it could not comment on the matter until it had received feedback on why its bid failed.

A spokesman for the Wise Group said: “The Supervised Attendance Orders contract was won under a competitive tender process. Councillor Coleman does not receive any remuneration or expenses in his role as a director of the Wise Group.”