CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
"Let's be quite clear about this, Mr Sanderman." Forbes paused for a moment, lightly drumming his fingers on the table edge. "It has been suggested to us that you have interfered with tenders for contracts to make sure that your tender won."
"Rubbish. Who told you nonsense like that?"
"It's not rubbish and you know it. You're wasting your time if you think you can brazen it out with me. We've been watching you for a while. Mr Freeman here has compiled tables of the figures presented at the various tender openings. Every time your bid has won by the slimmest of margins."
"That's rather circumstantial. I'd put it down to skilled tendering."
Westerman cleared his throat and Sanderman twitched nervously in his direction.
"Come now, Clive," said Westerman, intent upon a more oblique approach. "I can see from your tension that you know there's substance in what Mr Forbes has said."
"You'd be tense if you were pulled before the Chief Executive and the Treasurer to answer trumped up charges."
"Don't imagine that we're not sympathetic to your objectives. We can understand why you would want to retain the contracts. You're entitled to have your say and we'll listen carefully."
The ticking of the ornate clock on the bookcase became intrusive as the room fell silent. They had already sat and talked around the subject for several minutes before Forbes had come out with a direct accusation.
Sanderman at last seemed to be wavering, his lips moving slightly as he mentally rehearsed what he might say. Forbes decided to press home his case. "We have signed statements from two members of staff who have already admitted involvement in fixing the tenders. You really have no defence."
"Who's been saying these things"
"I'm not prepared to say."
There was a moment's silence as Sanderman looked from face to face and found their expectant stares returning his.
Forbes spoke again. "If you persist in denying these accusations, I shall be forced to call in the police. I'm sure you would find a grilling by them an even less attractive prospect. This Authority has been getting a very poor press of late and I'm aware of more potentially bad news in the pipeline. I can assure you that we would prefer to deal with this matter internally, rather than washing our dirty laundry in public. It's up to you."
Freeman looked out of the window, distancing himself from the horse trading that was the hallmark of the new style local government. Sanderman stared vacantly, then spoke very softly.
"What action will you take?"
"I haven't decided yet. I want to know just how many people have been involved, and whether anyone has benefited personally in terms of actual money."
"No. It was never for personal gain." Sanderman's voice grew stronger now that he was unburdened of his admission. "And I'm certainly not going to take the blame for everything. You just said that I could have my say, Mr Westerman, and I will. It's bad enough fighting for tenders when everyone's starting with equal chances, but there are unscrupulous operators in this area who are quite prepared to sink to immoral or illegal actions to get what they want."
"Can you give us some actual details," Westerman asked.
"We lost one or two small contracts early on. The winning bids were ridiculously low. They were from businesses that were making good profits at the time. There was no recession then. I couldn't understand it at first. Why would they want to win tenders at a price that would be certain to lose them money? The truth is that they could see the jam I was in. They knew that I couldn't legally make a bid that I knew would make a loss, so they were bound to win the tenders. I'm not allowed to bid for private sector work. If I don't win the Council contracts, the size of my workforce has to be cut and the specialised equipment gets sold off. The next time the contract comes up I haven't got the men or the equipment to bid for it. They knew all this. They were going to sit back and watch while the Council workforce collapsed. It would only take them a couple of years and a relatively small subsidy on their part before the job was done. With every contract lost, my ability to compete would be reduced. Before long they would be able to put in bids with a small profit element and still beat me."
"Wait a minute," said Forbes. "Are you saying that a - what's the word? - cartel of local businesses determined on a strategy to wipe out the Council workforce, so that they could raise their prices later and make fat profits at the local taxpayer's expense?"
"Worse than that. I think that all the local contractors who're capable of the sort of services that my men provide are actually controlled by the same group of people."
"I suppose that's the underlying nature of a cartel," said Forbes.
"Yes, but some of them are Council members."
There was silence in the room. Forbes inspected his fingernails as he absorbed what had just been said. Had Sanderman actually got any evidence?
"Names, Mr Sanderman. We'll need names."
"I've no reason to protect them. The ringleader is Miles Cavendish. He controls Councillor Martin and Councillor Parker, but I don't know if they're involved in his companies. Cavendish is a nasty piece of work. I'd rather my name wasn't mentioned if you accuse him of anything."
Forbes and Westerman were momentarily lost for words, so Freeman decided to ask a question. "So how did you foil their attempts to put you out of business?"
"At the start I got hold of the tenders and pulled out the really low ones. I couldn't just destroy them, or they would see the published winning price and raise a fuss, so I pinched some headed paper from this office and wrote to the companies telling them their bids were unacceptable. Usually for the genuine reason that their bids were impossibly low."
"But surely you're aware that a council can turn down bids if they think that they're loss leaders?"
"Yes, I know the rules, but with the companies controlling the voting at committees, the lower bids would have been accepted. The councillors would have said that we should take advantage of the folly of the low bidding companies."
"So what happened then?"
"They eventually gave up the super-low bids, but they were still bidding very competitively. Having once started tampering with the bids, I found it impossible to stop."
Forbes looked up. "Mr Freeman has been taking notes of what you have said. He'll bring a typed up copy to you tomorrow to sign. If you're telling the truth I have a certain sympathy for the position you found yourself in. We'll see what we can do. In the meantime you carry on with your normal work and say nothing to anyone about this meeting or what's been said. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Yes Mr Forbes. And thank you."
Sanderman got up and left, but the other three remained seated at the table.
"What do you make of that?" asked Forbes.
"When a man's been cheating," said Freeman, "it's always possible he'll try to protect himself with further lies."
"I believe his story," said Westerman. "I believe it one hundred percent."
"If Mr Cavendish really does have an interest in local companies that are tendering for contracts, then he has broken the law by not declaring an interest."
"The problem is," said Freeman, "that he has quite possibly concealed his ownership or involvement. You probably know that we always get reports on companies that wish to tender. His name's never come up among the directors."
"I don't relish the thought of tackling Mr Cavendish head on," said Forbes. "I think I rather share Mr Sanderman's opinion of him. Our best approach will be to get Councillor Parker in for a chat. He strikes me as a far less forceful character. I'll see if I can get him to come in tomorrow, if you gentlemen could keep yourselves available."
"What about Sanderman?" asked Freeman.
"He'll have to go, but we won't make a fuss if he helps clear all this up. He's over fifty, he can retire early."
"And what about Cavendish?"
"Don't worry. If Parker or anyone else spills the beans, we'll go to
the police. I won't attempt to cover up that side of things."