A DECISION to award Sandwell school transport contracts worth more than £20 million to two firms owned by an ex-employee, who is the son of former deputy Sandwell Council deputy leader Mahboob Hussain, has been branded a “fiasco”.

Opposition Conservative members of Sandwell Council said they were yet to see the results of an internal investigation into how decisions were made and called for a full external inquiry.

In June the cabinet was expected to endorse a decision to choose two companies – North Birmingham Travel and County Cars – run by former council employee Azeem Hafeez to take on the four four-year contracts.

Mr Hafeez is also the son of former Sandwell Council deputy leader Mahboob Hussain and both were named in the Wragge Report of 2016 on land deals at the authority.

But authority leader Rajbir Singh halted the process and ordered an internal review to establish how the award was made.

Earlier this month, it had also emerged concerns had been raised about taxi drivers employed to take vulnerable children to school may have been working under modern slavery conditions.

At a full council meeting on Monday (July 26), Tory councillor Jay Anandou tabled a motion calling for an external review into the SEND transport procurement and the delivery model for future contracts.

This was defeated by an amended Labour motion which recognised the leader had already instructed an external review.

It added: “The council welcomes the culture of accountability and transparency under the leadership of Councillor Singh.”

But Councillor Anandou said the original award of the contracts had exposed a string of failings including a lack of transparency, concerns over the quality of the winning bids, reputational risk and procedural errors.

He said: “The whole SEND transport fiasco has caused great concern to everyone and reminded us of the dark days of the Wragge Report.

“The findings of the internal review have not to been presented yet.

“I want us to stop the practices of the past. I urge the council to be more transparent with the findings of the internal review and ensure we receive a full and proper investigation.

“Those days when one could pull the wool over the public’s eyes are gone. They can now see right through us.”

Conservative Group leader David Fisher added: “I also welcome the external independent investigation and pleased that the executive has listened and taken on board all the concerns that were raised about awarding £22 million of taxpayers’ money to two taxi companies basically owned by the same person.

“I have grave concerns how it even got to this point and why scrutiny wasn’t consulted on these proposals.”

Councillor Singh said: “At the heart of this work is the council’s commitment to ensure families can be confident their children are transported to schools by good operators.

“The council needs to be confident the operators we work with have good business practices in place.

“When we are faced with challenges about the quality of our services, we will always take swift action to ensure we investigate concerns and learn how to make further improvements.

“And that’s exactly what this council is doing. The external review and work of audit and risk committee and of the scrutiny boards will provide the evidence needed to ensure our current and future contracts are of good quality.”