Council leader: Core Fit money not from my fund
THE leader of Cheshire East Council says that no money for contracts issued to his physiotherapist Amanda Morris came from a budget he controls.
Michael Jones said that council papers had incorrectly recorded that £50,000 which partly funded one of the contracts came from the ‘Your Money’ fund – which was controlled by the leader.
The official council document waiving the normal procurement rules for a contract worth up to £115,000 awarded to Core Fit, which is run by Ms Morris, states that £50,000 towards the contract came from the fund.
But Coun Jones insisted the money came from another account – the Community Investment Reserve – which unspent funds from the Your Money budget were transferred into at the end of the last financial year, a budget he says he does not have direct control over.
Coun Jones has previously told the Express that he introduced his physio to council officers, but that he had nothing to do with the awarding of the contracts.
Calls for an investigation have been made by both members of the council’s Conservative group, the Labour opposition and the mayor Hilda Gaddum after three council contracts worth up to £156,000 to run fitness sessions in schools and community centres were awarded to Core Fit outside the council’s normal tendering rules.
Coun Jones said: “I have never signed off any money to Core Fit or to Amanda Morris.
“The Your Money fund stopped on March 31 and the residual went into the Community Investment Reserve.
“For transparency people have put on the form that it was allocated from the Your Money fund, but it was a mistake, it should have said residual.
“I had no knowledge of the money being given to Core Fit. I didn’t know anything about money being given to Core Fit until people started asking questions about it. Why would I? Procurement is nothing to do with me.
“There has never been a bid put forward by Amanda Morris for any money from the Your Money fund.
“I don’t know why the money was paid to Core Fit from the residual fund.”
The Your Money fund was set up with £900,000 of council money that was not spent in 2014 to be awarded to community organisations as grants and council leader Michael Jones was given sole responsibility for signing off the grants.
Cheshire East Council’s chief executive Mike Suarez said: “I am absolutely confident and clear that the Your Money Fund came to an end in March 2015, as per the Cabinet resolution and that the residual funds were transferred into the Community Investment Reserve.
“The residual funds amounted to £267,551. Unlike the Your Money Fund, the leader of the council had no sign-off of the Community Investment Reserve disbursement.
“At an administrative level, and as a way to track the residual monies, the monies were often referred to as the legacy Your Money Fund.
“I need to make it absolutely clear that the Community Investment Reserve and the Your Money Fund are completely separate. The Your Money Fund had very specific, set criteria for application purposes.
“Any reference to the Your Money Fund in future correspondence beyond the expiry date of the fund (March 31, 2015) was simply a way to track the residual funds.
“We acknowledge that it is unfortunate that some of the paperwork associated with the Community Investment Reserve does make reference to the Your Money Fund, but this is a simple administrative error and nothing more.
“This is an important learning point that we will take into the administration of the Community Investment Reserve.”
Chief executive Mike Suarez has previously said an internal audit has not shown any ‘unlawful expenditure’ and there will be no external investigation into the matter. Amanda Morris could not be contacted for a comment.