WALTHAM FOREST: Council fiasco report slammed (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: Council fiasco report slammed

3:36pm Thursday 3rd December 2009 in

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AN independent report into the council’s long-term mis-handling of millions pounds has been slammed for ignoring the role of councillors in the fiasco.

A panel led by London Development Agency chief Sir Peter Rogers found rules to prevent fraud were regularly bypassed over a number of years.

The report describes a ‘culture of non-compliance” with proper procedure and found evidence that senior managers were “protected” from disciplinary action.

Conservative leader Matt Davis said: “(The report) completely fails to address the key issue of why these disgraceful events occurred means that it is, at best, only half of the report it ought to have been.

“There has been no investigation of the politicians in all of this and yet Peter Rogers is, without having looked into it, claiming that the political leadership was ‘excellent’. That is just plain rubbish.

“The fact that the panel chose not to even interview myself, or any other opposition member, let alone properly investigate the actions of Labour cabinet members and Roger Taylor (former interim chief executive) strongly suggests that this is a clever attempt at a whitewash.”

“The question still remains – who told officers to break the rules so often and to such negative effect and why did they give that instruction?”

The report said a desire to hit government targets after previous failings meant proper processes were sacrificed.

It also found the situation worsened after the fiasco was exposed in July this year, despite assurances changes would be made.

Despite damning evidence of rule breaking and waste within the authority, the report emphasised that the council has improved frontline services.

But public sector Union Unison was also damning in its critique of the Rogers Report.

A statement said: “We find the gratuitous back slapping throughout the reports obsequious and entirely inappropriate.

“It is also a matter of opinion as to whether service delivery has improved. The star system may show improvement but the residents of the borough don’t necessarily see it that way.”

The report heavily criticised the council’s human resources department (HR), saying its failings meant staff were not punished for breaking the rules.

But Unison said HR staff have been made the scapegoats, insisting they were regularly ignored by departments when their opinions did not fit in with management thinking.

The man who led the independent investigation into the mismanagement of council finances has defended his findings.

Peter Rogers is adamant that councillors were not responsible for the long-term failings.

He said: “The blame lies firmly with officers, not with politicians. Service excellence from politicians was not matched by officers.”

Two reports which informed the findings were kept out of the public domain after the council received external legal advice. But Mr Rogers confirmed that this went against his recommendation for complete transparency.

One investigation is understood to have centred on development company Renaisi, while the other concentrated on further failings relating to large council contracts.

Council leader Chris Robbins said: “I think the enquiry has been completely transparent. The conclusions they reached were with the highest integrity.”

“We're going to respond very positively and we also have confidence in the people that wrote this report.

“I have no doubt the authority can pick itself back up. We've made tremendous strides in this borough over the last seven years. There are areas we didn't get to or weren't able to put right but this report will enable us to go to areas that have been left to flounder.

“It will give us the impetus to do this and this is being done on a joint party basis.”

Cllr Loakes said: “I gave full and frank testimony to the panel and whilst I am of course disappointed that the report has found such widespread bad proactive, I very strongly believe that we were right to commission the panel and get these issues in the open.”

The report will be discussed at a town hall cabinet meeting tonight (December 3).

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