COUNCILLORS will debate next week whether to scrutinise Barnet Council’s contracts with Capita in public.

The authority will review its ten-year £320million contract with the firm which runs its finance, HR and other back office services later this year.

Labour councillor Geof Cooke has put forward a motion at next week’s full council on Tuesday (January 26) calling for all review working groups to be held in public.

It follows a row over the decision to hold some of the meetings in private, after calls by Labour to do this were rejected two weeks ago.

The Conservative group says privacy will ensure greater scrutiny, but Labour says holding them publicly will ensure transparency for tax payers.

Cllr Cooke’s motion says: “Council believes that with such a huge amount of tax-payers' money at stake the public deserve to know what their councillors think of the way these services are being run by Capita.

“With large amounts of extra payments being made to Capita for work not covered under the core contract, council believes a public discussion needs to be had about whether the contract really is good value for money.

“Council also believes that the review of this contract should be open and transparent and not undertaken behind closed doors.”

Last week, Councillor Anthony Finn, Conservative chairman of the performance and contract management committee, said: The purpose of the cross-party working group is for councillors to review the CSG contract and get the best deal for Barnet going forward.

"To do this most effectively, members will need to analyse commercially sensitive information and be able to discuss the issues freely.

“This lends itself to some meetings being held privately - enabling this level of scrutiny and removing the temptation for any councillor to simply play up to the press or the public gallery.”

Cllr Finn added any decisions from the review would be taken in public.