Fraud-hit A4e is favourite for another state contract
BACK-TO-WORK firm A4e, which is under investigation for fraud, is in line for another lucrative government contract – this time with the Home Office.
Sources said yesterday that the beleaguered firm is the first choice to run a helpline advising people on discrimination issues and whether they can sue their employers.
The revelation comes despite the fact the Department for Work and Pensions has launched an inquiry into ten welfareto-work contracts run by A4e.
The firm – one of the five main contractors on the Government’s £5billion Work Programme – was set up by Emma Harrison, the Prime Minister’s former ‘back-towork’ tsar, although she has said that she is not personally involved in the inquiry.
Mrs Harrison has quit her post as A4e’s chairman – even though she retains ownership of 85 per cent of the firm’s shares.
The firm is now understood to be the Home Office’s first choice to become preferred bidder to run the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s helpline. A4e bid for the contract alongside the Citizens Advice Bureau, business processing company Vertex, and Sitel, which ran a disability helpline for the EHRC before it was taken in house.
The Equality Advisory and Support line, which is currently run by the EHRC and is to be transferred to the Home Office, costs £2.1million a year and provides advice on people’s rights on issues covering disability, gender, race and sexuality. It employs 85 staff and handles 50,000 calls and 15,000 emails a year.
Sources told the investigative journalism website Exaro that A4e had scored the highest in the bidding, making them top of the list to be awarded ‘preferred bidder’ status – even if that status has not officially yet been handed over.
Last night Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘This belies common sense.
There are so many question marks about this company’s competence and integrity that I can’t believe any government department is thinking of signing another contract with them. The Home Office should hold off from making any decision until the investigations have been completed.’
Last month it emerged A4e had been awarded ‘preferred bidder’ for two contracts to run prison education schemes.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘A4e have no contracts with the Home Office or its executive agencies. The procurement process for the Equality Advisory and Support service is ongoing and A4e have not been made the preferred bidder for this contract.’ A4e’s entire £180million UK turnover comes from state contracts. The firm has faced a storm of criticism since the Mail revealed in February that Mrs Harrison paid herself an £8.6million dividend last year – despite the firm’s failure to hit Government targets for finding jobs for the unemployed.
An internal A4e audit in 2009 found widespread allegations of fraud, including business owners being asked to sign blank jobs forms, and A4e falsely claiming that it had found positions for people and payments being claimed for applicants who only stayed in the post one day.
In a statement, A4e said: ‘We have not been informed we are a preferred bidder. Given the process is on-going, you would not expect us to comment on the detail of our bid as it is commercially sensitive.’