Saturday, January 17, 2009

Not in my own backyard.

Whilst looking at old links, I came across this story from 2002...

Ex-TDC boss will not give up title. From the Northern Echo, first published Thursday 7th Mar 2002.

THE former chairman of the controversial Teesside Development Corporation (TDC) last night fended off calls to give up his knighthood. Sir Ron Norman OBE said he was unwilling to be drawn into an argument with his accusers, but criticised "personal attacks" on him. Stockton North MP Frank Cook has questioned whether Sir Ron should be allowed to keep his knighthood in the wake of a damning report into the TDC.

The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed how the defunct corporation had broken a series of rules and regulations. A House of Commons Public Accounts Committee hearing was then told of how losses of up to £40m were piled up and sensitive documents shredded and destroyed. Sir Ron said: "I was given this knighthood while chairman of the board and did not ask for it. Frank Cook is entitled to his opinion and if he does not like the title he does not have to use it."

He said that the report into the TDC was not a balanced one, while adding that he was upset at the treatment he had received from the audit office, the Press and local MPs. Mr Cook, a fierce critic of the TDC, said that Sir Ron had to accept the ultimate responsibility for the "shambles behind the shiny facade". He said: "The truth of the matter is that the body over which he presided broke almost every principle of public service and accountability - ignoring the rules and doing deals which squandered huge amounts of public money."

Pressure is growing for a criminal investigation into the affairs of the TDC. Redcar MP Vera Baird said she was speaking to other Teesside MPs about the possibility of involving the Serious Fraud Office. A spokesman for the office said it had yet to receive a complaint and stressed that any allegations made would have to fit its criteria of "serious and complex fraud".

Cleveland Police halted an investigation into the TDC in November 2000 because they were unable to find evidence of criminal offences involving the agency.

Now when I saw this news article I couldn't believe it. For here we have our MP Vera Baird, in this article, calling for the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the TDC because of millions of pounds that went missing, because the TDC had broken a series of rules and regulations, broke every principle of public service and accountability and doing deals which squandered vast sums of public money.

Yet there we have the council in her constituency, our council, being exposed as surpressing audit reports and colluding with individuals within the commission to replace the surpressed report, changing minutes, having a twelve million pound hole in their budget, acting illegally by not only issuing parking tickets for years when they had no right to issue them, but concealing the truth so as not to have people claiming back the money that they had paid out on illegally issued tickets, officers spending tens of thousands of pounds above their limits under delegated powers, officers found in tribunal after tribunal to have lied and changed their evidence overnight and been found guilty of bullying, harassment and sharp practise, officers and councillors squandering millions of pounds of public money on behalf of Persimmon homes when there is absolutely no need, officers awarding themselves huge pay rises that in turn bumped up their pensions and extra paid days holidays whilst ordinary council employees were having to face pay cuts and redundancy, officers changing planning conditions to suit Persimmon, members failing to declare interests, union reps encouraging low paid council workers to accept pay deals on behalf of management that were way below what they were entitled to, something that the union rep was drummed out of the union for for bringing it into disrepute, officers bringing the council into disrepute by unfairly dismissing a council employee and ignoring a tribunal reccomendation to give the employee his job back, failing to tell the complete truth in press releases put out in the public domain, and lying under the FOI act. Not only that she had been informed of the massive conflict of interests surrounding the ex-chief executive, his wife and a medical village that they both had involvement with in their different positions in the council and the PCT, we had letters from the Serious fraud office which stated that the things that had happened in R+CBC pertained and I quote "to corruption" and that things and I quote "should be investigated by the police possibly assisted by the CPS"

And what did Vera Baird do???

STOPPED AN MP FROM CALLING FOR AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE COUNCIL HERE AND STOPPED HIM FROM SHOWING A FILM THAT CONTAINS ALL OF THESE FACTS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS BY THREATENING HIM WRONGLY WITH THE SPEAKER AND THEN CALLED FOR THE NOW EX-FINANCE OFFICER WHO WAS ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT THE TIME, A MAN WHO HAD BEEN FEATURED THREE TIMES IN PRIVATE EYE BECAUSE OF HIS LESS THAN CREDIBLE BEHAVIOUR, A MAN WHO HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN THE SUPRESSION OF THE AUDIT REPORT AMONGST OTHER THINGS, TO HOLD AN INTERNAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE THINGS WE WERE SAYING AND REPORT BACK TO HER WITH ANY FINDINGS OF WRONG DOING!

Perhaps Ms Baird could tell us all what the difference is between what was happening in the TDC, that prompted her to call for the SFO to investigate and what is happening in the council in her own constituency that not only prompted her to stop an independent investigation being called for, but which then prompted her to call for a meaningless internal investigation to be headed by a man who was involved in some of the wrongdoing?

THIS WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A WHITEWASH AND AN ATTEMPT TO COVER UP THE TRUTH FROM BEING INVESTIGATED PROPERLY!





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