THE Tory leader of Essex County Council has admitted a series “regrettable and wrong” “process” failures after £500,000 of taxpayers’ cash was handed to a social media personality to run Facebook pages during the pandemic.

Simon Harris, from Hockley, received the huge sum from Essex County Council to manage social media pages and spread public health messages during the Covid pandemic. The payments have come under fire since and Essex County Council leader Kevin Bentley has admitted the council failed to follow correct processes around contracts and the declaration of interests.

Mr Harris received the payments to run the Essex Coronavirus Action page and has insisted it was a vital resource to communicate with residents and helped recruit 5,000 volunteers to support shielding and help man vaccination stations.

Following a full council meeting on Tuesday, councillors voted in favour of an urgent independent investigation into the payments.

At the meeting, Aidan McGurran, Essex County Council Labour councillor for Pitsea, said: “There really does need to be a genuine investigation with no limits to its scope and its bounds this is not just about Simon Harris there are questions about his on payments to other individuals and other individuals as well.

“Some of the areas that need to be examined are around how the work was commissioned, how the various contractors were selected and why no vetting of any kind took place.”

Labour Group councillor, Ivan Henderson questioned the decision-making processes surrounded the payments. He said: “Who identified Simon Harris as an appropriate contractor? In the case of Simon Harris why did payments continue to be made after concerns were raised to the council?

“The statement of the council mentions no competitive process was carried out. Who decided the payments made reflected realistic market rates?”

Mr Bentley said: “Procurement waivers were not granted for most of the spend, contracts were not signed, and processes were not always followed around declarations of interest.

“Some money was paid to an individual to pass onto others. This was not good practice either, though it was not illegal. This would not have been allowed to happen if our central services were aware of it.

“The record making was in many cases poor, all this is extremely regrettable and wrong. This is not the kind of thing members would have been aware of and it is a matter I have raised with the chief executive.”