Oversight of council payments to prankster 'woeful'

Simon Harris was also known for setting up spoof news and prank websites

A local authority had "woeful" oversight of hundreds of thousands of pounds paid to an internet prankster to provide social media services, according to opposition councillors.

An internal Essex County Council report found "no evidence of competitive procurement" in the process that saw Simon Harris and others receive thousands of pounds during the Covid pandemic.

Paul Turner, director of legal services at the council, said they "don’t know what the selection process was", while councillors from across the political spectrum criticised the arrangements.

The committee said it would be making a range of recommendations about future procurements by the Conservative-run council.

Mr Harris, who had previously run comedy prank websites and spoof news websites, was contracted to help distribute the council's Covid-19 information on social media accounts during the pandemic and was paid about £500,000.

The council investigation had “not been able to find any evidence of value for money” though further payments were approved by cabinet members as part of a range of Covid measures in June 2021.

Accountability 'lacking'

Labour’s Aidan McGurran told the audit committee payments to several individuals and groups had shown a "shocking lack of good governance" when "handing over large amounts of residents' money with no oversight".

He told the committee the payments for the “amplification” of the council’s messaging on social media started in 2018 before the pandemic and a total of £1.448m had been spent.

Mr McGurran and the Liberal Democrats' David King both described the contract situation as "woeful".

The Conservative chairman of the committee, Anthony Hedley, said the quantity of information “pumped out” on sites like Facebook did not necessarily mean quality.

Conservative Sue Barker said “when Covid hit an awful lot of money was thrust” at the council and asked if anyone was in charge of monitoring that spend?

Independent councillor Wendy Stamp said accountability had been “lacking”.

Mr Turner said the use of Simon Harris, was made by a council officer who no longer worked there, and he told councillors there was “no record of any decision”.

He said there were “oral contracts” with several individuals.

“Clearly it would have been better if there had been a written contract,” he said.

The Liberal Democrat group leader Mike Mackrory told the committee the report showed "there was no selection process. There was Kirsty O’Callaghan’s close associates and her friends".

Ms O’Callaghan, a council officer and former head of strengthening communities at the council, no longer works at the council and was not at the meeting. She has been asked for comment by the BBC.

Gavin Jones (right) said no-one had overall oversight over Covid payments by Essex County Council

Jon Morter received £98,442 over five years to provide help with building social media networks and messaging. He was not at the committee meeting, but said on Twitter/X he did not have a contract until 2021.

He tweeted: "We did some great work.

"Was it worth the total figure of public money? No. Absolutely not."

'Good faith'

The report for the audit committee said the "purpose of the groups was to work at arm’s length from the council and, particularly during the pandemic, to pick up messaging issued by ECC [Essex County Council] and repackage in a more informal way to make it appeal to a different audience and make it more engaging".

It said "Simon Harris was paid a sum of money to disburse to others... Mr Harris has been entirely open about the arrangement and officers are satisfied that he has acted in good faith".

However, the report noted “it appears that there was no definite plan” when it came to “commissioning content from third parties”

It added that "this was not appropriate given the limited control and oversight that the council had over the spend".

The council's chief executive Gavin Jones, who authored the report, responded that no one person had overview of all the payments.

Councillors on the audit committee will be making a series of recommendations for improvements.