Technical Blog - Melanie Dudley's Report

There is an Information Rights Tribunal due soon relating to this although for the reasons set out below it is unlikely to go ahead. The first thing that needs to be said is that the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is pretty useless as a tool for uncovering corruption - particularly when an authority had gone rogue as Sandwell did under booted-out Chief Exec Jan Britton. The problem is that, in effect, a bent Council can conceal vast amounts of information concerning corrupt and/or incompetent employees under "personal information" provisions and this will be supported by the Information Commissioner.

We have seen throughout this blog that Sandwell under Cooper, Eling and Britton got rid of people - often with trade union connivance - and forced them to sign confidentiality agreements. This is the incredible statement made by the ICO about this IN THIS CASE (EA/2019/0182):

"The council further argued that is would be extremely distressing for the individuals concerned to have [this] information released. It was also suggested that the council might be in breach of its contractual duties as some of the individuals may have left under confidential settlement agreements."

In other words Sandwell are gagging former employees and then saying they would be in breach of contract if they said anything about them!

This particular matter relates to the mega-expensive (and useless) Wragge Report and associated QC Report (which are on the SMBC website with substantial redactons.) In fact, the ICO did mildly criticise Sandwell:

"Set against this [privacy of individuals] there are legitimate interests in disclosure and the fact that personal information was published by the council on its website within the Gowling report and the QC opinion clearly suggests that the council thought so too."

As it happens the ICO is wrong here because the Wragge disclosure etc was forced through by the disastrous former "leader" Steve "Squealing" Eling in an attempt to damage his political opponents rather than for altruistic reasons. Squealer and his chums were happy to hang employees out to dry in the disclosed documents without any concern for any "distress" allegedly caused from them being identified.

In a "normal" council there would be a political opposition to hold the executive to account but that doesn't apply in Sadders. Indeed it is worse since many of the greaser councillors simply shrug their shoulders and turn a blind eye when directly informed by me and others of fraud, cronyism and incompetence. Worse still, a corrupt local police force works had in glove with these sh*ts even where there is clear prima facie evidence of crimes having been committed.

I am NOT suggesting criminal behaviour by those named below though I am suggesting that, at the very least, the four employees named were guilty of incompetence and this has been made perfectly clear on here many times before. I should just add that a major player in this story gave certain evidence to The Skidder but has refused to confirm it in writing for the benefit of the Tribunal.

Following the Wragge debacle bent Sandwell set up "Project Sapphire" to determine whether any further action should be taken against four senior employees who had been identified in the Wragge Report for numerous failings (ignoring their failings in other matters which have come to light) ie Neeraj Sharma, Pardip Sharma, Nick Bubalo and Adrian Scarrott. (I am very interested in Scarrott's role in council housing allocation - particularly in 2011 - if anyone has any info!)

It is unlikely that we would have ever heard about this report had it not been for Eling and Marshall referring to it in the infamous "WhatsApp" feed where they used a disparaging name for Melanie and stressed that the Squealer threw a wobbler about it when it didn't do any damage to his political opponents. This, together with the Councillor "X" report, are alleged to be the causes of her leaving the Council.

In fact, Melanie absolved the incompetent Four from any individual wrongdoing FFS! Although serious errors were noted she said the failings were "systematic" [although I assume she means "systemic"] and "attributable to lack of general oversight and accountability." I assume she means from this that Jan Britton and John Garrett were the ones whose lack of general oversight led to these disasters? And at least they were forced out along with these four jokers.

I am indebted to the new regime - Cllr Yvonne Davies and Interim Chief Executive David Stevens - for allowing me sight of the executive overview of Project Sapphire although, alas, also very heavily redacted. I am assured that there was no significant later amendment of the report (unlike the Councillor "X" report.) As it is, this matter has now run its course (although, as ever, I am still interested in anyone who has specific information concerning this fiasco.)

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