Hackett - Remembrance Road Revisited

 Remember this? (See posts passim and legal notice below).

This was a camera shot of a computer screen at bent Labour Sandwell Council and was the basis of a whistleblowing complaint to the Head of Legal, Surjit Tour, as long ago as, wait for it, 17th January, 2018. 

On 22nd June, 2018 Mr Tour confirmed that nothing was amiss. In particular there was no impropriety by Cllr Simon "The Sandwell Slasher" Hackett. End of story.

But in 2019 I discovered that a "Counter-Fraud Report" had been prepared and so I asked for a copy via a Freedom of Information (FOIA) Request. This was refused on the basis that it contains so much information about the tenant (who was wholly exonerated from any wrongdoing) that SMBC cannot reasonably release any sort of copy.

Now this piqued my interest. As we know, Melanie Dudley was forced out of SMBC by Eling and Britton because she refused to amend a report on Hackett finding him in breach of the Members' Code of Conduct in one instance. A new enquiry was underway virtually before Melanie had got her coat and left the building. New evidence suggests the direct involvement of Jan Britton in what happened next (more on this soon) but lo - a new report was prepared and Hackett was suddenly innocent. The repurcussions of this are still ongoing and there is an extremely slow "re-investigation" into the affair! The saga has cost huge sums in the dirt-poor Labour sh*thole.

Now says I, if the whistleblowing complaint was about Hackett why was almost the whole report about the innocent tenant?

And so the matter was referred to the Information Commissioner who has upheld the Council's view that the Fraud Report should not be disclosed. But there are a couple of oddities ...

1. Although the whistleblower sought to implicate Hackett (and, of course that does not mean he has any case to answer as the complaint may have been mailcious or just plain wrong), the Commissioner has confirmed that the report focusses on the tenant and how the tenancy was allocated. Mysteriously, Hackett's alleged involvement is only mentioned "briefly" and the report "does not contain much detail about this aspect of the allegation"! Why? How was Hackett exonerated so quickly when there was at least some evidence of his involvement? How was the strength of that evidence tested? Perhaps Simon himself can shed some light on this (lol!)
2. The Commissioner has found that the information in the report relates to the data subjects, "that is the tenant, Council officers, the Councillor and whistleblower. She is satisfied that this information both relates to and identifies the individuals concerned". What? How was the whistleblower identified? Was this what the investigation really concentrated on? And what happened to the whistleblower under Eling and Britton's brutal regime?

Once again there is serious public interest in discovering how thorough this investigation was given what has gone on in the past and there are unanswered questions here. I have appealed the Commissioner's decision but don't hold your breath folks.

And until we know more, would-be whistleblowers at bent Sandwell should be very, very careful....

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