AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into how the city council came to pay a single firm more than £3.2 million to complete hundreds of its building maintenance projects.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has admitted it paid the money to Kinders Ltd on an 'as and when needed' basis over four years without formally putting the work out to tender.

The authority used the city-based firm between 2006/07 and the current financial year to carry out hundreds of small-scale jobs which were typically valued at less than £5,000 each.

The jobs, which appear to have been approved under powers delegated to officers, included tidying up and securing properties which the council had bought in clearance areas linked to the Pathfinder housing regeneration scheme.

Critics say the work should have been packaged up in contracts and tendered out.

There is no suggestion that Kinders or officials did anything wrong.

But a probe has now been launched into the council's procurement department over the process amid "concerns" from one of the city's MPs.

Councillor Brian Ward, cabinet member for regeneration, is working with Phil Crossland, the council's head of transportation and planning, to get to the bottom of the matter.

And Mr Ward, pictured, believes the issue was "overlooked" by the Labour administration which ran the council at the time.

He added: "We can't see any impropriety in the people in the department and I think they have just carried on in a complacent way not conducive to the good running of the authority.

"There is nothing wrong with delegated powers, but what seems to be the anomaly here is why so many have gone to the same company."

It is not known when the review will end, but Mr Ward said Mr Crossland was keeping him informed of progress.

Mr Crossland added: "We should have seen the amount of work coming up and tendered a proper term contract."

Stoke-on-Trent South Labour MP Rob Flello said he did not want the matter to become a party political issue and instead aimed for it to be resolved to the best benefit of the taxpayer.

Mr Flello added: "It concerns me that the city council has been letting its contracts to one organisation."

"It seems to be flying in the face of the city's written policies and is extremely worrying."

Early last year the city council's ruling cabinet ordered a review into the way services were procured.

In September it was decided tenders would be invited for a set term contract of estate management and that is expected to be awarded within months.

The council has not issued a breakdown of how the money paid to Kinders was spent as officials said it would mean looking at hundreds of invoices.

No-one from Kinders was available for comment yesterday.

The row comes after demolition firms were told in December they would be invited to reapply for contracts to bulldoze two sites, the former Westcliffe Hospital in Chell, and Fenton's Hamilton House, after a separate council investigation into its procurement methods.

The inquiry found that procurement staff did not spot a wide variation between the highest and lowest bids for the two contracts.