West Midlands Police "In" on Public Closure "Deal"!

A Superintendent of West Midlands Police was an active participant in the deal that caused the closure of The Public. Senior Police Officer Basit Javid, brother of Business Secretary Sajid Javid, was on the Board of Governors of sleazy Sandwell College and attended most of the meetings where the stinking deal was discussed and connived in the College's cover up of it by agreeing that the minutes of the meetings should be kept secret.

Let us not forget that this was a rigged transaction between two publicly-funded bodies to which all other parties were deliberately excluded and Sandwell Labour had already decided to gift the multi-million conversion contract to Interserve without putting it out to tender. Accordingly there was no question of commercial confidentially being relevant here.

Superintendent Javid attended his first Sandwell College Board of Governors meeting on 25th January, 2013. Despite Freedom of Information requests to  the secretive College it is not clear that The Public was discussed at this meeting although it seems improbable that it was not and the Board - including copper Javid - agreed to keep minuted items B13-04 and B13-05 secret.

The minutes of the next meeting on 25th February, 2013 are also opaque but Javid was there and the Board agreed to keep 6 items from the meeting secret.

Thanks to my Freedom of Information requests we now have some of the later redacted minutes but no thanks to WMP's man on the ground. Their Superintendent was at the meetings on 22nd April, 2013, 20th May, 2013 and 25th June, 2013 and agreed that the following minutes relating to The Public - in date order - should also be kept secret - B13.56; B13.65 and B13.83.

Javid sent his apologies for the meeting on 15th July, 2103 (though presumably read the minutes). He was back for the two meetings on 16th and 18th September, 2103. At the latter meeting Javid connived with his fellow Board members to keep The Public minute B13.118 secret.

The officer then missed the meeting on 4th November, 2013 but was at the busy meeting of 9th December, 2013 when he again agreed that item B13.162 concerning The Public should be kept from public view.

He missed the meeting of 16th December, 2013 when the bent deal was finally agreed though he must have received the minutes and the "two reports" on the shafting of The Public which were apparently circulated beforehand.

I am most definitely not suggesting personal impropriety by Javid here (the rotten deal was a complex one and he may not have known the sordid history behind it nor understood the ramifications) although one has to assume that he was fully in agreement with the College screwing over the taxpayer and the people of Sandwell as there is no record of him dissenting in any of the available minutes. As above, there is also no record of him dissenting to everything being deliberately concealed by the College from proper public scrutiny (and remember that afterwards both the Council and College fought tooth and nail to prevent disclosure of this "great deal for Sandwell"!)

And is it any wonder that West Midlands Police have taken no interest in this multi-million pound scandal whatsoever?

(Despite previous complaints and Freedom of Information requests and formal written complaints to Ofsted the College has still not published the minutes for the last FIVE Board meetings stretching back to 8th December, 2014!!! I have done a further FoI request today and again written to Ofsted in respect of this appallingly poor governance).

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