Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a possible conflict of interest concerning high-value contracts for services. This is because the issue does not cause Mr X significant personal injustice. The injustice he claims is indirect and affects ‘all or most’ of the people in the Council’s area.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about a possible conflict of interest in awarding contracts for services to a company which has as a director a council employee.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’.
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. Our primary role is to remedy injustice. We are not a regulatory body and have no powers to cancel the Council’s contracts or say it must award them to another company.
7. Mr X says the issue he complains about affects every single member of the public and it is therefore not subject for investigation, as set out at Paragraph 4. There is no significant or direct injustice to Mr X from the contracts between the Council and the business and we could not determine if the contracts provide value for money or recommend a remedy for Mr X if they do not.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is about an issue that affects ‘all or most’ of the people in the Council’s area.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman