Today’s issue of the satirical magazine Private Eye carries a report on the Peverel / Cirrus price fixing scandal, which is the subject of an Office of Fair Trading investigation.
Peverel is co-operating with the inquiry and has been granted “leniency” as a result from court action. The OFT says Peverel turned itself in in December 2009, although Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation supporters had alerted several authorities to the scam before this date.
The inquiry is confined to the years 2005-2009.
The OFT’s full report is expected in weeks.
Related posts:
The Oldie reports Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal
OFT will report on the Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal on Friday
Fury as OFT may give Peverel immunity over Cirrus price-fixing scandal
Guardian examines the Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal tomorrow
Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation meets lawyers over Peverel price-fixing scandal
Pensioners trapped by broken lift in Peverel block make BBC news … and it has happened FOUR times before in the past TWO years!
I wonder if they will ask ” Now, Cirrus, did you carry out the work or did you subcontract or partner with any other companies (or a company associated with them) that gave a tender?”.
My deeply suspicious mind might lead me to ask that question as, if in each case, they could only bid higher than an already declared bid, I cannot see why they would even entertain bidding at all. My basis for asking the question would be if I can think of how to rig a process, someone far brighter than I could do so.
LHA,
The other side to the Cirrus price fixing scandal may be this.
What would stop Cirrus “overbidding” for work they did not want, to help their “friends” to win the work at an enhanced price, possibly as a “thank you?”
Michael,
We have been informed that this may have happened but we were also informed that Peverel used Cirrus who won the Price Fixing Tender and then allowed Glyn Jackson with Cirrus T Shirts to undertake the work, at true costs and pocketed the difference.
We have been informed that the Warden Call System can be installed using the existing wiring for a quarter of what we were charged???
The figure mentioned was less than £6,000.00 ABOUT £200.00 EACH FLAT.
Can any person know how much each flat would have cost, to introduce the Warden Call System, as we paid out £22,000.00 for 29 flats, £758.00 each???
That would take it into cartels or conspiracies, which are not unknown, but thats for the OFT to consider and I cannot speculate, only postulate. I would certainly look at such contracts now and consider if client should consider challenging the historic costs as far back as is possible in the light of the earlier revelations and expert evidence of pricing and options at that time. One might also consider if there was a need for replacement or alternatives to hardwired systems such as cellular or home phone based systems to see if it met S19.
We at ABC were charged over £20,000.00 for updating our Warden Call System (WCS).
This amount was added too, as payments to BT were not included in the Tender Bid but were charged to our development.
In total we paid over £22,000.00 for the replacement of the WCS.
The system is linked into the House Managers Residents, and a Line Rental Charge of £23.50 plus VAT per month, an Insurance cost of £3.50 plus VAT.
We pay out each month, £51.00 for the Warden Control System.
The total so far this year we have a bill of £612.00 and no House Manager.
Our House Manager was sacked for Gross Misconduct and left on the 24/10/12.
She refused to pay her Phone Bills and spent £2,500.00 on Plants/Planter without any consultation.
Following on from my last comment,
Cirrus and Glyn Jackson tendered for our Warden Call System (WCS) and the cost per flat was approximately £758.62. Both of these companies had been Price Fixing as PEVEREL HAD OWNED UP TOO.
Cirrus won the TENDER AND ONLY added a phone link to EACH FLAT AND A LINK TO THEIR own Sister Company CarelineUK.
As the old system wiring was still in place how can they justify the cost for each flat
Following on again,
We also pay:
Careline Monitoring £956.80
Door Entry & Emergency Call System £627.84
We do not have any communal doors?
So Cirrus and Careline who are sister companies of Peverel Retirement, receive a yearly income of £1,584.64.
They link in with B.T. who are paid for the Telephone Line £612.00 a year before any phone calls.
With the Warden Call System Costs, the Monitoring Costs and Door Entry System Costs we pay in a total of £2,196.64 a year, this does not include any Management Costs for Phone Calls.
The last House Manager we had averaged £600.00 a year in Private Phone Calls which she refused to reimburse us.
Peverel Area Manager knew about this but allowed the situation to carry on, from when he first was informed in April 2011 until she finally left in October 2012 some 17 months later.
We did receive £1126.00 in refunds but another £157.00 has been found from when she commenced on 26/11/10 to the 31/03/2011.
Peverel Area Manager informed us that it is the fault of the admin staff who put together the Expenses Files as the Area Manager does not check what is invoiced.