Audit and Governance

[steveL]

Couple of classic from this mornings Audit and Governance:

Councillor Hamiliton
"People are too quick to scrutinise Councillors."

. . . and Councillor Wells, in the context of SAB and Beck as Trustees of Manor Residents, claiming that councillors often sign up to things without realising what they are signing up to and what their responsibilities are . . .

I'm sure you all find that very reassuring.

[fred c]

Meanwhile back in the real world, Angelina Ballerina is still in Askham Grange........ can cllr Harrison tell us, which Labour councillor scrutinised her little 'Business Enterprise' up on the Manor 

As for the pipsqueak...... another dampfart from him

[akarjl]

Meanwhile back in the real world, Angelina Ballerina is still in Askham Grange....

Unbelievable - thieving toe rag appears to be living in better conditions than her "toilet" on the manor....disgrace.....stealing  from the people you are supposed to help and living the life of reily. Hopefully she suffers when she's released.

[Inspector Knacker]

often sign up to things without realising what they are signing up to and what their responsibilities are . . .

It's their 'responsibility' to find out what they are signing up for and their responsibilities are.

[the_exile]

The investigation by HBC into the awarding of the connected care contract to Who Cares North East found no wrong doing............................

I have top secret information that supplied the members of the investigation team:

Blind Pugh
Ray Charles
Stevie Wonder

everything is fine with the world then.

Ged Hall as an Accountant, should hang his head in shame.

However Ged Hall as the "independent" Accountant responsible for completing the Accounts of the MRA/Who Cares NE, should have not been within a country mile of any contract awarding decisions.

Here's the rub, Ged couldn't stand down as "independent" Accountant for MRA/Who Cares NE, as he obviously knew what was going on, as any work even of the most basic and rudimentary nature would have highlighted this to him. Standing down and bringing in a REAL "Independent" firm of Accountants would have uncovered the mess/wrongdoing. soooooooooo Ged is in the proverbially catch 22.

His options were stand down from the role within the council that allowed him to award a £680K contract, and then there would be a risk that the £680K wouldn't head to the Manor! or Stand down as "Independent" accountant of MRA/Who Cares NE, in which case the whole sorry mess unravels sooner rather than later.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when those discussions were ongoing between the great and the good of the local labour party...................

[jeffh]

From this mornings Audit and Governance:

. . . and Councillor Wells, in the context of SAB and Beck as Trustees of Manor Residents, claiming that councillors often sign up to things without realising what they are signing up to and what their responsibilities are . . .

..................and here ends the case for the defense your honour

[DRiddle]

THe whole thing is just the very predictable whitewash anticipated on this forum 4 or 5 years ago. Enough said.

[steveL]

The Charity Commission are still working on their own investigation and have asked The Post to send them all we have on the matter which we are doing, including the video of Wells saying it was nothing to do with the council and all the fault of Wilcox and the Charity Commission.

Bare in mind that this was his publicly declared position before he produced the results of the so-called investigation.

Wells shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near Audit and Governance, the committee responsible for such investigations and for investigations into complaints against councillors. He is fully signed up to the Labour agenda in return for all three of his councillors being given a seat on the eleven seat Planning Committee - the only committee he's ever really been interested in.

[fred c]

Lets face it..... there are a number of LabMob councillors who, if every minute scrap of information on their responsibilities was shredded and fed to them intravenously, would still not comprehend what the responsibility of their positions actually is........ It is not solely about the understanding of the position, it is about the morality, integrity and honesty that goes with it.

Sadly those qualities are sadly lacking in a number of our 'elected officials'

[steveL]

I'm not ready to let this one go. The purpose of Wells' report was to draw a line under the whole sorry episode and close it off - that ain't going to happen.

In truth, nothing has been changed to prevent the whole thing happening again next week and, as we watch the unemployable SAB currently building up his new community venture in Masefield Road, that's something of which we should all be aware.

[Shepherd]

RMW most repeated phrase - "Whats in it for me?"

[jeffh]

Wells shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near Audit and Governance, the committee responsible for such investigations and for investigations into complaints against councillors. He is fully signed up to the Labour agenda in return for all three of his councillors being given a seat on the eleven seat Planning Committee - the only committee he's ever really been interested in.

Under the current constitution is that allowed?
In part 5 of the Constitution "Codes and Protocols" page 121 "Political Balance"
I don't intend typing it out but my understanding is that Committees should be politically balanced by a ratio of the number of seats a party holds on the council against the total number of seats.  The Local Conservatives hold 3 seats on the full council against 33 seats being available, so the most they can have on a committee is 1 in 11.  So for planning that would be 1 seat.
The current planning committee is made up as follows -
Labour - 7
Conservative - 3
PHF - 1
Obviously there are 2 too many Conservative councillors.
Another interesting point is the Ward distribution
Rural West - 3
Manor House - 3 (including Chair)
De Bruce - 1
Hart - 1
Jesmond - 1
Seaton - 1
Victoria - 1
More than 50% of the committee is from 2 wards

NOT Represented
Headland & Harbour
Burn Valley
Foggy Furze
Fens & Rossmere
36% of Hartlepool Wards have no Planning Committee representation

[Johnny Bongo]

I'm not ready to let this one go. The purpose of Wells' report was to draw a line under the whole sorry episode and close it off - that ain't going to happen.

In truth, nothing has been changed to prevent the whole thing happening again next week and, as we watch the unemployable SAB currently building up his new community venture in Masefield Road, that's something of which we should all be aware.

Maybe it's worth mentioning this info to The Charity Commission, due to the fact that he was a Trustee of MRA!  Maybe then they'll take an extra look at this 'venture'!

[steveL]

There's a loophole - a deliberate loophole - which allows them to do this. While the constitution calls for proportionality in the make-up of the committees, this is interpreted by Labour as proportionality across ALL committees. So by having fewer seats on other committees, Wells can get away with having more seats on the Planning Committee so long as the overall balance across ALL committees is proportional.

It's all done with the agreement of Labour who in return get a friendly face chairing the Audit and Governance, which must be chaired by someone who is not from the ruling group and which has the job of scrutinising the decisions made by Labour.

In the infamous transcript of Wells telephone conversation with Jason Anderson, Wells admits that he works with Labour on their decisions before they ever get to full council. As a result, the chances of him criticising any of those decisions as Chair of Audit and Governance are zero.

What we need is a Monitoring Officer who makes sure that this kind of deal doesn't happen. Unfortunately, we have Peter Devlin working for a Chief Executive who believes the role of all councillors is to not make waves by throwing pebbles and disturbing the stillness of the pond.

[testing times]

You should write a book Steve