Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council has not paid invoices presented by the complainant who is a care provider. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, says the Council owes her over £100,000 in unpaid invoices. Mrs X is a care provider.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and letters the Council sent to Mrs X about the invoices. I considered comments Mrs X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. Mrs X is a care provider. She says she has submitted many invoices to the Council that it has not paid. Mrs X says the Council owes her more than £100,000 in unpaid invoices.
5. In 2019 Mrs X sent the Council details of many invoices. The Council checked 111 invoices. It found that it had paid all but four of them. The Council explained it had been unable to pay those four because Mrs X had not provided details of the purchase order or sufficient alternative evidence to allow the claim to be substantiated. The Council asked Mrs X to provide more evidence in relation to those four invoices by 15 July 2019. The Council says Mrs X did not do so.
6. Mrs X submitted more invoices in September. The Council checked the documents and found it had paid all the invoices. It said the information provided by Mrs X showed it had paid the disputed invoices.
7. The Council paid some invoices in late 2019. Mrs X has confirmed that she has received some payments from the Council.

Assessment

8. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. It has checked the invoices provided by Mrs X and found it has paid most of them. The invoices that remain unpaid are those for which Mrs X has not provided enough information to validate the claim. If Mrs X wishes to pursue these unpaid invoices further she will need to provide the Council with the information it has asked for.
9. In addition, Mrs X has confirmed she received payment of some of the invoices. This shows that Mrs X can continue to work with the Council and there is no reason for the Ombudsman to get involved.

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Final decision

10. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman