WALTHAM FOREST: Home Secretary's advisor accuses Labour leadership over NRF scandal (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: Home Secretary's advisor accuses Labour leadership over NRF scandal

10:56am Tuesday 24th February 2009 in Waltham Forest News By Jonathan Bunn

AN ADVISOR to the Home Secretary claims a leading councillor invited him to resolve concerns about the council’s mismanagement of money earmarked to help the poor “within the Party”.

Lord Toby Harris says he was contacted by the unnamed senior Labour councillor when he begun asking a series of Parliamentary questions about the use of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) in Waltham Forest.

Documents reveal a systemic failure within the council to correctly allocate, administer and monitor Neighbourhood Renewal Fund spending since 2004.

Council chief executive Andrew Kilburn says the scope of a review into how the council responded to the scandal must be broadened to ensure its credibility.

The intervention of Lord Harris, who is the Home Secretary's representaive on the Metropolitan Police Authority, piles more pressure on the Labour Group - and council leader Clyde Loakes in particular.

Cllr Loakes was the chair of the Local Strategic Partnership, which is responsible for monitoring NRF spending, when the mismanagement took place.

However, he has refused to accept any responsibility for the failings, blaming council officers for not following tendering rules.

This is despite evidence which suggests serious concerns about NRF were brought to his attention as early as 2004.

Writing on his website, Lord Harris said: “Throughout the developing scandal, the leadership of the Labour Group in Waltham Forest seems to have been hoping that the problem would simply go away.

“Initially, they declared themselves confident that all decisions had been properly taken.

“They resisted further investigations - so much so, that the traditional questions of ‘what did they know and when did they know it?’ started to be asked.

“At one stage, I received a phone message from one of them, noting that I was asking all these questions and inviting me to ‘resolve it in the Party’.

“I am afraid there are wider public interest questions at stake here and these matters need to be seen to be resolved openly and transparently.”

A police investigation is currently being conducted into allegations that EduAction, the company which used to manage education in the borough, used NRF money to boost profits.

A detailed audit of is being carried out into all projects between 2006-8 under the Better Neighbourhoods Initiative, which was launched to ensure NRF was more effectively targeted after previous failings were uncovered.

An investigation into the conduct of five unnamed officers is still ongoing.