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| Going for gold? East End Councillor George Redmond |
Our sources passed on the complaint, made by a disability rights activist, after we held a meeting in Labour Councillor George Redmond's constituency, to place pressure on him following his "misconduct" over a £500,000 payout to his business associate Ronnie Saez. The pair were on the board of the Council run Glasgow East Regeneration Agency when it was wound up without transferring its assets back to the city. Councillor Jim Coleman was also implicated on that occasion.
If upheld however the charges in this complaint could prove more serious still, as they are alleged to involve under the table payments to family relatives of Councillor Redmond, who is believed to be on the Board of the charity in question, and has sat on the boards of agencies which have provided funding for the implicated NGO. Councillor Redmond is widely rumoured to have links to organised crime - a charge he has steadfastly denied in the past. However should he be proven to have been involved in an illegal payments scandal in a criminal front enterprise, having been involved in allocating it public funding, this would very damning indeed, and would have consequences far beyond his East End constituency.
Councillor Redmond's constituency takes in much of the newly built and under construction Commonwealth Games' facilities, and he is on the board of East End public property development quango Clyde Gateway. Relatives of Councillor Redmond are providing security for the Commonwealth Games facilities.
The committee of 100 has called for a public inquiry into misconduct at Glasgow City Council, after a number of large payoffs, financial irregularities, and damning reports were made following Labour's re-election last year.
Since we made this call it has emerged that the Glasgow Social Work boss, David Crawford, who closed the Accord Centre for adults with learning disabilities (the campaign which featured prominently in the 2011 Holyrood election) was also inexplicably given an extraordinary £500,000 'retirement package.' Cllr Redmond has much to thank Mr Crawford for. The conditions of the closure of the Accord Centre lucratively transferred council service users over to facilities run by Redmond - who maintains extensive private and commercial, quango and facilities management interests. Crawford is in his fifties and had worked for GCC for just four years. He is believed to currently be in employment in social services elsewhere in Scotland.
We believe there is an urgent need for a public inquiry into the affairs at the city council, which can no longer be ignored.
http://t.co/oLtN1r6cFM Petition: @GlasgowCC & @ScotParl: Hold a public inquiry into misconduct at Glasgow City Council. #gccgraft
— Power in Community (@PowerCIC) June 14, 2013
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