Highly-Paid Commissioners - more complaints!

After years of appalling Labour corruption in Sandwell the Government finally took action and sent in Commissioners - at eye-watering expense - to sort the bent Borough out. But what the hell is going on now?

Readers will know that I have lodged a formal complaint with the Secretary of State given revelations concerning the conduct of the Lead Commissioner, Kim Bromley Derry (KBD) when he was the Interim Chief Exec of bent Sandwell (and whom Labour were paying £1,300 a day plus expenses).

Now I have lodged a further complaint dated today in respect of the Assistant Commissioner, Jim Taylor, who mislead me - in writing - concerning the original appointment of KBD by bent Labour. Here is the Complaint with a small amount of redacted information:

To the Secretary of State for Levelling-Up:   

THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION

I regret having to write to The Secretary of State again - via yourself - concerning the Sandwell Commissioners.

I am copying in MP’s Morris, Richards and Bailey to this.

I sent you a formal complaint to the Secretary of State on 25th August, 2022 requesting the immediate suspension of Kim Bromley Derry (KBD) as “Managing Director Commissioner” pending investigations surrounding his deliberate or grossly negligent failure, as Interim Chief Executive (ICE), to maintain ANY records in respect of the appointment of Keir Starmer crony, Imogen Walker, to a newly-created position at the corrupt Labour Council. I have not received even an acknowledgement as yet, and whilst I appreciate that there is a “changing of the Guard” in central Government at the moment, this is a most urgent matter. 

In the complaint referred to above I mentioned that there were serious concerns how KBD came to be appointed as the very-well rewarded ICE in the first place. I can tell you that the concerns reached me via a whistleblower working at Sandwell Council. In short, the whistleblower alleged that KBD’s appointment had been deliberately “rigged”. (I hold some further information which I will release at my discretion.)

I wrote to KBD asking about the circumstances of his appointment as ICE and was surprised to get a response from Jim Taylor, the Assistant Commissioner appointed by the Secretary of State. On 28th April, 2022 Mr Taylor purported to inform me that everything was “above board” with the appointment despite a “waiver” of the normal “Procedure Rules” and that three recruitment agencies had been approached for prospective candidates.

This did not accord with the story from the whistleblower which included the allegation that the search for other candidates was a fraudulent charade as KBD had already been “given the nod”. I duly made a FOIA request only to discover that KBD was not put forward by the recruitment agencies (as was originally stated by the whistleblower) but by the Local Government Association (LGA). In the circumstances I believe that Mr Taylor either deliberately lied to me on 28th April or else he was grossly negligent in giving me an untrue and totally misleading version of events. As with KBD, I am also calling for the suspension of Mr Taylor forthwith pending a full investigation into his conduct. 

I did write to Mr Taylor giving him the chance to answer for himself but he has not done so, although I am sure he has referred my letter to you given the serious issues raised. Here is my email of 25th August, 2022:

“Dear Mr Taylor,

THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION

I refer to your letter of 28th April, 2022 concerning the appointment of Kim Bromley Derry (KBD) as Interim CEO at SMBC.

Whistleblowers at SMBC stated that KBD's appointment was a stitch-up with the LGA and that a makeweight candidate with no chance of success was put up against him.

In a FOIA reply Sandwell has now confirmed that KBD was a LGA candidate all along. You mislead me in your letter - deliberately or otherwise - since you stated "Three recruitment agencies had been approached for prospective candidates." You must have been aware of the LGA's role and yet you deliberately, or due to gross negligence, concealed it from me. Why?

May I assume that the LGA were also involved in your own lucrative appointment as Sandwell Assistant Commissioner?”

Additional Concerns

In the FOIA response referred to above the corrupt paid service responded, inter alia, that KBD held a meeting with the then Leader of the Council, Labour Cllr Rajbir Singh (and I imagine you know his story). In an insulting response SMBC say they cannot provide details of the meeting(s) as Singh has left the Council and his diary is unavailable. This is preposterous particularly as he had a full-time taxpayer-funded secretary who keeps an electronic diary. Also Singh is readily contactable, not least through his wife who is a serving Labour Councillor!

Of even greater concern is that KBD says he “cannot remember” when the appointment took place! We have seen in the formal complaint that this guy egregiously failed to keep ANY records in the Imogen Walker affair and now he alleges that he cannot produce records or remember details of a trip which landed him a job at £1,300 a day plus 12p a mile (to travel from London) plus “reasonable expenses”. This is taking the mickey out of the people of Sandwell and the FOIA legal framework - and also needs to be investigated with the original complaint. 

You are aware that there is an outstanding FOIA request with your own Department concerning the appointment of KBD as the Lead Commissioner. Were you aware of his inability to maintain records and his self-declared memory difficulties when you appointed him - again at huge costs to the taxpayer? (It should be remembered that the Secretary of State has also allowed this man to keep his other job as a Director of a major property company whilst raking in public funds.)

Submissions to the Secretary of State

Prior to Sandwell being placed in “special measures” your Department invited submissions on the appropriateness of taking that step. Myself and Darryl Magher submitted a very lengthy document detailing grave concerns about the conduct of the corrupt Council. Two issues (at least) still require urgent attention:

1   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Surjit Tour xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;

2   In our Submission we pointed out that under the stewardship of the now-disgraced Chief Executive, Jan Britton, corrupt Sandwell were automatically deleting the email and other computerised records of both councillors and employees (including, incredibly, SMBC solicitors) [i.e. when they left]. We say that this was done with deliberate fraudulent intent but, whatever the position, this cannot possibly be an appropriate thing to do. We are seeing that KBD is trying to cheat the system by not keeping records at all, but surely when he was appointed he should have been “tasked” with stopping this deeply corrupt practice? Clearly he has not taken action since the FOIA reply referred to above claims that Rajbir Singh’s records are supposedly unavailable. This requires urgent attention even if (when) the current Commissioners are suspended.

Returning Officer

KBD has also been given the extra payday of being the Sandwell Returning Officer (with Tour as his sidekick).

At the May elections there was an egregious attempt to rig the result of the Tividale Ward where a Labour “victory” of two votes was eventually overturned to a Conservative win of 48 votes. KBD states that this was due to “human error” but that is disputed and he has not, as yet, confirmed what steps he is taking to ensure that this situation does not arise again.

I am calling for KBD’s suspension as a Commissioner but there is also the question if he is a fit and proper person to be the Returning Officer noting (a) his failure to maintain public records; (b) his self-declared memory problems and (c) the debacle at the Tividale Count?

This is important as there is a pending by election in Wednesbury South. Clearly it would be an unsatisfactory situation if KBD is suspended/removed and still the RO!"

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PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!

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