"Could it be yet another case of council officers embarrassing the political leadership by taking controversial decisions and keeping councillors in the dark?"
It is probably part of the delegated duties down to the officers - just think what it would be like if every decision the council had to make about everything had to go to committee
I have just been stuffed by my software company and it is going to cost £XXX to do - up to a certain level it can just be agreed internally rather than go to committee/councillors.... Chance are that we could only be talking about £10k a year.