After four years, Liverpool Council has revealed what it knew around the controversial Beautiful Ideas company (BICo).
The council has carried out a number of probes into the community interest company amid allegations of poor practice but the documents had never been released. The decision not to release the audit reports was criticised by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
A number of councillors and residents have campaigned for the findings to be released, culminating in the publishing of the document on the council’s website. Now the documents are in the open, what happens now?
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According to Liverpool Council, the car parks formerly operated by BiCo are now closed and the authority said it understands the company is in the process of being wound up. It said on its website: “The council does not have any jurisdiction to do anything further in relation to the other external parties named in the reports.”
Dan Fenwick, the council’s monitoring officer will review whether any further action under the members’ code of conduct is appropriate including consideration of any previous action taken. The council has stressed itself and BICo are separate entities and any questions moving forward need to be directed to the organisation itself or related bodies and funders.
Cllr Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said he had passed the report to the tax office following its release and criticised the delay in its publication. He said: “In my view a redacted version of the report should have been issued when the report was completed. I said this at the time and have continually pressed for the report to be published since.
The council has defended its decision not to publish the reports when requested under the Freedom of Information Act. It said generally internal audit reports are not made publicly available but it accepted the ICO’s decision in this case and is “complying with the ruling and additional documents referenced in the reports to promote transparency.”
A summary of the findings of recent internal audit reports will be brought to meetings of the audit committee. Liverpool Council said it complied with the timescale of publishing within 35 days of the ICO decision and used that period to redact relevant parts.
It said given the public interest in reports, organisations and individuals named a “reasonable opportunity to view them before publication.” Former Labour councillors Alan Gibbons and Alfie Hincks have written to Mr Fenwick, Mayor Joanne Anderson, commissioners and Labour group chief whip expressing concern over the findings of three reports.
They asked for an update on a proposed investigation by Mayor Anderson on any potential wrongdoing identified through the reports. On more than £50,000 of unallocated funding balances from the Walton Breck Road site, identified in the 2019 report, while the council was in “ongoing dialogue” over the money, legal advice indicated that recovery would not be possible. It said: “Further, the Regulator of Community Interest Companies has confirmed that upon winding up of a CIC, any assets must be transferred to a “similar” organisation.
“For these reasons, the council is not able to reclaim funds.” Cllr Kris Brown, chair of the council's audit committee, said the publication of the report was a positive step forward.
He said: "I am pleased that the internal audit report into BICo has now been published however there is still many more questions that need to be answered. The internal audit reports will be brought to audit committee in due course and will give councillors the opportunity to scrutinise this further.”
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