Keeping it in the family

The Popular Party (PP) of Redován denounced yesterday that the ruling party of the City council habitually hired relatives to undertake work for them.

The sister of the councillor for social welfare invoiced the council three times for a total of 17,000€. The first one was in July 2007 for 3,300€ to hire an orchestra. By the time the third invoice had been presented, the cost of hiring the orchestra had risen to 9,090€. This time it was for the New Year's Eve celebrations in 2008.

The mayoress on the other hand,  used her brother's company to supply IT goods. Two of the four invoices from Bitenda SL were for items such as  software and toner. The total was about 6,000€.

It isn't necessarily illegal to use relatives to undertake work for the council but it could be considered unethical. If it can be proved that the companies chosen provided the best service at the best price then that would be fine, otherwise the process of hiring relatives was bound to arouse suspicion.

I know that my friend Pete will come back at me quoting 'Stark and McCormick'.

When I was in charge of finance at Anfield, we used this company a lot for electrical work in the school. Pete and his brother complained bitterly that their work was expensive and that we should look to other companies. However I can honesty say that nobody with responsibility for hiring Stark and McCormick had any relationship with the company. More to the point, as far as I was aware, the only whiff of an incentive  we ever got from them was a calendar at Christmas.