Sandwell Labour: Corrupt AND Incompetent!

Heard the first cuckoo of Spring yet? We have, in the personage of bent Labour's Cllr Peter "Zorro" Hughes (and see further below). Zorro is infamous for being the creme de la creme of arse-lickers amongst a strong field. No meeting of the corrupt Labour dictatorship seems to occur without Hughes intervening - usually with a long and excrutiating paean of praise for the wonders of Sadwell Labour after nearly half a century of failure. And when the grotesque Squealing Eling was "leader" his bottom was regularly (metaphorically) licked clean by this bumptious buffon:

Soil yourself - vote Zorro Hughes

Sandwell Labour's collapsing edifice is held up by three pillars - fraud, cronyism and incompetence. Today we focus on the latter.

Back in the day, the wife-beating "leader" Darren Cooper, used to boast on Labour election leaflets that each year Sadders had a "balanced budget". As this blog regularly pointed out this is, in fact, a legal requirement and so an idle boast intended to deceive the thick people who vote Red in the sh*thole Borough. This blog has also written extensively about the breathtaking incompetence of recent years: the disastrous BT deal, the multi-million pound Providence Place losses; the commercial leases fiasco, Roway Lane, the £15m black hole in the accounts and much, much, more. (I am being charitable here in citing these matters as incompetence since millions of pounds have been lost though in most cases a third party has mysteriously "benefitted".)

Yet Zorro pops up spewing b*llocks about how well-run the Council is and what a marvellous job Councillors do with "scrutiny". These are mostly the same bunch who kept Jan Britton in post lol! And then we come to the former money-man himself, employee Darren Carter (blogs passim and see legal notice below).

Carter, another groveller par excellence, rose through the ranks rapidly although some questioned his ability. He became the statutory s. 151 Officer - the person supposed to be safeguarding the rotten Labour fief's finances. He was still in post for most of the last municipal financial year - 2019/20 though was eventually suspended. This was partly due to his absolutely appalling behaviour in the Cabinet secretaries debacle (blogs passim) but who knows what else he may have been up to? Clues started to appear that all was not well with matters financial as there were lengthy delays with the auditors "signing-off" the annual accounts. Us taxpayers paid Carter's generous salary throughout his lengthy suspension and he eventually left in murky circumstances.

But the absurd Alberich has been claiming at every opportunity that bent Labour's finances are robust and benefit from rigorous "scrutiny" by the relevant Committee (if I tell you that the current committee is two of the Giles's, Moore and Laura "formerly Jewish" Rollins you will see how improbable that is lol!)

Let's look at some facts as presented by Grant Thornton in a recent report:

Labour F - up One:

The comprehensive income and expenditure statement was wrong to the tune of, er, £13m (yes, thirteen million pounds). As the auditors checked the figures they reported an increased deficit of £4.1m!

Labour F - up Two:

The Council has to set provisions (ie amounts set aside to meet future bills) but whilst Hughes was metaphorically jerking himself off about the "scrutiny" the accountants had to amend the bent Labour Council's figure by £11m (yes, again, eleven million pounds!) Adjustments had to be made as the arrangements made by Britton, Stevens, Carter and Co. were "poor". A Provision in respect of housing benefit claims was "omitted from the accounts in its entirety"!

Labour F -up Three:

"Material" adjustments had to be made to the cashflow forecast.

Labour F-up Four:

Usable reserves were understated by £1.3m but the good news was tempered since other usable reserves were overstated by, er, £5.5m. 

Labour F-up Five:

There was an accounting error of, wait for it, £35m!!!! There was no actual financial loss resulting from this particular error but this is what the auditors said:

"It is unusual in our experience to identify errors in cash or creditors of this magnitude ... we would have expected the Council's quality control procedures to have identified this error."

Some readers will remember the abysmal shambles I reported on YEARS ago where bent Labour had entered into commercial leases on disastrous terms AND "lost" vital records. Again, these incompetents sp*nked huge sums up the wall and ended up having to buy the decrepit buildings, eg. Salisbury House in West Brom, to get out of the rubbish leases. And so I was surprised and shocked to read this from the auditors:

"In addition we have seen there is not a comprehensive database for maintaining property assets in the property department."

One has to ask, given that this was exposed years ago, why this has not been rectified? And it is not difficult to see how this slapdash behaviour could facilitate more Labour fraud.

We all remember the "one of our tractors is missing" saga but the auditors still found problems with the records relating to the property, plant and equipment we taxpayers own. They found it "inappropriate" to have this information incompletely recorded over 22 excel spreadsheets.

In the shambolic bent paid service - beholden to their Labour masters - there was a "disconnect" between Carter's brigade and departments managing debt, said Grant Thornton.

Ask yourselves why Labour barred the public from all the scrutiny meetings for this years budget? Everything was secret. This lot are p*ssing on you once again folks ...

And don't forget that a significant number of Labour Councillors signed a document urging that no disciplinary action be taken against Darren Carter - here they are and I am sure you can work out which of these morons are seeking your vote in May:

NB. Luke Giles is Chair of Budget Scrutiny ROFLMAO!

So there you have it folks - not only are Labour corrupt but also sh*t. Vote for Zorro and Co. in May if you actually like living in a sh*thole and have no aspiration of ever having better lives or opportunities.

A Couple More Independent Candidates

I wrote recently how good egg Wayne Trinder is standing as an independent in Friar Park - once again I just ask locals to note how Labour have tried to f*ck them over and do they really want to be made mugs of again? Just look at what Wayne has done - his record speaks for itself and he has strong support from the local community. Now is the time for change!

Over in Tipton Green Richard Jeffcoat is standing. I can't tell you much about him yet although I hope to meet him soon. In the meantime take a look at his website:

https://www.tiptontogether.info/

And in Great Barr & Yew Tree Darryl Magher is standing as an anti-corruption candidate. It is well known that I do not share some of Darryl's politics (and I continue to try and covert him to the true path) but there has probably been no-one I know who has done so much to expose the stinking corruption, cronyism and incompetence in Labour Sandwell. I can personally vouch for the work he does behind the scenes. And his greatest triumph was single-handedly exposing the bent Wednesbury BID election! He is local and "Sandwell" through and through. If you want a Councillor who will read all the papers, turn up at all the meetings, ask searching questions and fight hard for local people then Darryl must get your vote!

The Vilest of the Labour Vile - One Down, One to Go?

The Skiderati were having a debate recently on the five vilest Sandwell Labour Councillors. The top four really objectionable nasties picked themselves:

Elaine Costigan, Peter Hughes, Paul Moore & John Edwards.

There was a degree of competition for the fifth spot between Simon Hackett and Bob Piper with The Sandwell Slasher just edging it.

Happily "no DSS" former socialist landlord John "Jedward" Edwards is out in May and so at least one vacancy will arise in the top five soon. But, as above, unless the folk of Wednesbury North are going to defecate in their own pants again, surely they will finally get rid of the pompous poltroon, Zorro?

Don't forget you need to register to vote by 19th April (and apply for a postsal vote if you want one by 20th April). Go to the SMBC website for more information!

Register:

https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200205/elections_and_voting/380/how_to_vote

April Fools Day - Sandwell's Birthday:

Did you celebrate? 

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