"STATEMENT OF SANDWELL COUNCIL
On 21st September 2017 Julian Saunders made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Sandwell Council. In effect, the request was in three parts:
1. A matter concerning internal audit;
2. Matters relating to the disposal of land to a relative of Cllr A; and
3. Matters relating to the disposal of land to a relative of Cllr (now ex-Cllr)
INTERNAL AUDIT
SMBC satisfied itself that a WhatsApp feed operated by ex-Cllr C was genuine. In that feed various general allegations were made concerning alleged interference of elected members in internal audit investigations.
The Council's established practice is that its internal audit team does not accept referrals for investigations directly from elected members. All referrals have to be made through a Chief Officer. (This excludes issues referred by the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.) SMBC will continue to ensure the process outlined above is followed at all times. In accordance with the Sandwell Council’s new Leader's continuous improvement agenda, the Council’s Chief Internal Auditor has been requested to review relevant Internal Audit procedures in this area to ensure the Council’s procedures are compliant with best practice.
In respect of general matters, and despite extensive investigations, there is no written evidence of any direct referrals from elected members to internal audit.
In respect of an alleged meeting between ex-Cllr C and the (then) Interim Monitoring Officer no computerised record of the alleged meeting has been found and the Council understands that the (then) Interim Monitoring Officer did not keep a paper diary.
With regard to Charity Y the allegation via ex-Cllr C was that SMBC had used its auditors to investigate the Charity's accounts. There is no written evidence of this. However, in 2016, the former Chief Executive, Jan Britton, introduced an internal mechanism whereby any invoices from Charity Y were subject to a further level of checking by the then Head of Finance. No concerns were found, and the checks ceased after approximately 18 months.
There is no written record why Mr Britton authorised this procedure. In an effort to assist the Information Rights Tribunal and, in the spirit of openness and transparency, oral enquiries have also been made but have not elicited any further information.
Community organisation Z was the subject of external complaints and two specific matters relating to outstanding rent and refurbishment actions/costs were openly referred to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee on 17 March 2017.
Following complaints from Julian Saunders the Council took remedial action in relation to the recovery of rent. All outstanding rent owed by Community organisation Z has been discharged in full and no further action is necessary in respect of this matter.
SMBC also received allegations of poor financial controls (that fell outside the jurisdiction of the Council) in the running of the Community organisation Z which it reported to them. There were further allegations relating to a grant from an external funder which SMBC drew to their attention. The Council had not provided this particular grant but strengthened its own grants process in February 2018.
THE DISPOSAL OF LAND TO A RELATIVE OF COUNCILLOR A
The Council is unable to disclose third party data in relation to the bidding for the site although it is reviewing the process in this particular historic case to ensure that all arrangements are robust.
This matter was also the subject of investigations by the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.
Further claims via Cllr C were that additional allegations were being made in respect of Cllr A. An anonymous letter dated 19th January 2017 was received by SMBC which opened a number of lines of enquiry. There is no written evidence of any further allegations made to SMBC concerning Cllr A.
THE DISPOSAL OF LAND TO A RELATIVE OF EX-COUNCILLOR B
An allegation was made via ex-Cllr C in the WhatsApp feed that 4 bids had been received for a plot of land sold eventually sold to the son of ex-Cllr B who, at the time, was also an employee of SMBC.
An initial draft Internal Audit report was prepared with the intention that it would be reported to the Audit Committee, but it was not presented at the specific request of West Midlands Police. SMBC undertakes to provide a lawfully redacted copy of the report to Julian Saunders within 21 days.
The Council took separate action against the employee via its employment processes.
The matter was also investigated in the Wragge Report and referred to in the published Opinion of James Goudie QC.
The evidence is that 4 bids were received by 2 interested parties not the 4 alleged via Cllr C.
AN APOLOGY
There has been significant delay in SMBC dealing with this matter for which it again apologises to Julian Saunders, the Information Commissioner and the Information Rights Tribunal.
The whole Freedom of Information process at SMBC is under review with a view to ensuring compliance with both the letter and spirit of the legislation.
30th September 2019."
This may be partly inexplicable to those unfamiliar with the history of the matter but stems from a very old FOI request which is on the What Do They Know website and which SMBC only partly replied to under the Eling/Britton regime.
The matter arises from the time that Squealing Eling and Richard Marshall (remember him lol!) set up the Whats App feed so that I could shaft Eling's enemies. Various allegations were made by them which are familiar to regular readers.
But the Squealer tried to intervene in the FOI process even writing to the Information Commissioner alleging that I am a criminal - a matter that forms part of my current libel claim against him.
Unfortunately the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a blunt instrument for trying to get the truth out of a bent local authority since it only allows certain information to be disclosed. In particular, if there is no written documentation available there is no legal way (via the FOIA) of forcing out that detail via the Information Commissioner. Thus we have seen that Jan Britton, the former Chief Executive who left hurriedly with Yvonne Davies elegant trainer up his arse, caused or permitted dodgy land deals to be set up via secret un-minuted meetings. The law does not allow the Information Commissioner nor the Tribunal to investigate the facts of those meetings eg via oral evidence.
We saw in the whole Five Star Taxis debacle that Britton claimed to have undertaken a thorough investigation into involvement of a councillor at that time but when confronted with a FOIA he could not produce any documentation with regard to this!
And if a corrupt regime like that in Sandwell operates by way of oral instructions there is no "documentation" available to the public. This is clearly a case where the Government needs to tighten up the Act as it is a an open invitation for fraud and wrongdoing.
Cooper, Eling and Britton worked on the principal that most Sandwell folk couldn't afford to take judicial review proceedings against the Council and so they could do as they pleased.
[ I should say immediately that in recent times the new regime of Leader Yvonne Davies and Interim Chief Executive David Stevens have tried to go beyond the strict legal requirements now and to provide such information as they can glean from staff - not always an easy exercise as staff (particularly junior staff) tell me that they are still afraid of reprisals if they speak out and, of course, some staff have gone anyway. Thus they have at least been able to establish the identity of the parties at a couple of secret meetings to set up the Lion Farm deal - the subject of another Tribunal case - although the matters discussed cannot now be ascertained.]
Jan Britton also caused or permitted council business to be conducted via personal Whats App and encrypted Blackberry messaging which is also not covered by the FOIA. Thus he has been able to conceal much of what has been going on from FOIA disclosure. In normal circumstances one would have expected the Police to investigate some of these matters but, unfortunately, West Midlands Police are also bent and in cahoots with elements within the Council and criminal interests linked to it.
The problems are clearly shown in this case. It was alleged that Eling/Marshall were forcing the Council's auditors to investigate a local charity with a view to digging up dirt on at least two of Eling's enemies. As above, Eling and Britton did their best to block the FOIA request. But when the new regime checked there was no documentation available about any of this. That is the legal limit of the FOIA process. Happily, Yvonne and David Stevens made oral enquiries and discovered that Britton had, indeed, been monitoring the charity although how this came about is still not known.
So Britton - now is your chance to tell the world what you were up to and why!
There are five more Tribunal cases in progress. Thanks to the efforts of the new regime one - and possibly two - are very likely to settle soon and two have been adjourned to allow SMBC more time to disclose certain information. This is information which SMBC had during the Eling/Britton era but chose to conceal but which will hopefully now see the light of day soon. The new regime has confirmed its existence to the Tribunal.
I am also aware that various reviews are being undertaken to make systems - and record-keeping - more robust and important meetings now have a note-taker present and we can only hope that this all continues and the swamp finally starts to drain.
THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - COMMUNITY NEWS - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!
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PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!
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Another case of "We investigated ourselves, and found no wrongdoing?"
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