WALTHAM FOREST: Union passes "no confidence" vote in council leadership

12:33pm Thursday 11th March 2010

By Carl Brown

A TRADE union representing thousands of council workers has passed a vote of no confidence in the council leadership over its perceived failure to deal with malpractice following the mismanagement of millions of pounds.

Unison’s Waltham Forest branch, which has 3000 members working for the council, believes a plan to prevent a repeat of the long-term failings is unlikely to work.

An independent investigation recently found a pervading culture within the authority characterised by a disregard for contract rules to prevent fraud and the correct use of taxpayers’ money.

The council apologised for the fiasco, which also saw a lack of monitoring of how millions earmarked for poor areas was spent, and vowed to clean up its act.

Unison Waltham Forest branch secretary, Dave Knight, who is meeting council leader Chris Robbins this afternoon to outline union members' concerns, said not enough is being done.

He said: “Given that we had an independent report our members are angry that managers seem to be carrying as before, it is unreasonable.”

The union is concerned that senior officers continue to operate in positions it considers may give rise to a conflict of interest, citing the appointment of council deputy chief executive Martin Esom to the role of interim chief executive of property manager Ascham Homes.

There are also concerns that a re-organisation of the audit department is being led by an officer from Croydon Council, which already runs the department on behalf of Waltham Forest.

“This could result in up to £180,000 of extra work for his employer, London Borough of Croydon,” Mr Knight added.

The union is calling on the authority to open up its books for scrutiny by taxpayers and for a public inquiry into the way the authority awards contracts.

It also wants to see a panel established which would allow unions and community representatives to monitor contract negotiations.

Mr Knight also called for two specific contracts with companies, which have been found to have manipulated the contract bidding process, to be investigated.

Kier, which runs street cleaning services, and Henry Boot, which signed an aborted contract to develop Walthamstow’s Arcade site, were fined £18 million and £1 million respectively for so-called bid-rigging.

The council plan, announced in January, promised wholesale reform of council procedures and measures to improve transparency and public participation in decison-making.