This dossier
outlines a variety of cases of malfeasance in public office. Some of the allegations may indeed be
criminal. Many are within the letter of
the law but certainly outside of the standards we might expect of public
officials. Some of the stories were
already - at least in part - in the public domain, but have never been collated
together before. Several are entirely
new allegations, which we have come by either by means of eyewitness testimony,
or by our own investigations. Where we
rely solely on witness testimony we have made this clear. It is not our intention to defame or besmirch
the reputations of any individuals, and we are more than willing to recognise
that witness testimony may be partial or insincere, so throughout this dossier
where we are relying on witness testimony we make this clear. Some of the allegations however we believe to
be watertight evidence of malfeasance.
All of the
stories have come to light after the re-election of Glasgow Labour last
May. Were we to have included the
Purcell revelations, historic payouts, and the widely acknowledged criminal
actions of the previous Labour administration not only would this dossier have
become unwieldy, it would have been unfair.
We understand that the present Labour administration should be judged
only upon its merits, and we are fully aware that the honour of speaking at the
Labour conference earlier this year demonstrates the faith that Johann Lamont
has placed in Gordon Matheson in particular, as a man to lead a change at Glasgow
City Council.
It is in that
spirit, the desire to deal decisively with malpractice and malfeasance that
threatens to derail Labour's 100 Promises, and mire the City in apolitical
sleaze, that we have produced this document.
As a campaign based on promoting political accountability we did not
know who would win the last election when we formed. We accept that Labour has a mandate for
action on its - in places excellent - manifesto, and seeing it enact its progressive
promises is now our raison d'etre. It
was with great sadness that we felt we had to compile it. We were challenging the Council to enact its
policy on combined heat and power, while the OSCR report into the £500,000
Ronnie Saez payout was released and more or less ignored by the Council.
Despite the report describing the payout as "misconduct," neither
Councillor George Redmond, nor Councillor Jim Coleman were ever dealt with, and
the Council did not ask for the money to be returned. We felt we had a duty to investigate. What we uncovered showed a web of business
links in the East End concerning Redmond, Saez, the former Council leader and
former MSP Frank McAveety, and other Councillors and business and family
associates. Then the cancellation of the
City's chief combined heat and power project over what can only be described as
malfeasance demonstrated to us that real accountability could only happen when
these issues were being discussed constructively in the public domain. Following the Council refusing to meet with
the campaign to discuss these revelations we have come to the conclusion that
these matters merit a public inquiry. As
our investigations grew we began to see a pattern of malfeasance across the
City Council. We have collated this
dossier to enable a real debate about the true extent of this problem. We commend to you this dossier.
Executive
Summary
* Mismanagement and Corruption
involving Intermediate Labour Project (ILM); an eye witness claims he saw the
Head of Employability Services at Glasgow East Regeneration Agency of the
council, Gary Hay abuse the GERA administered ILM fund and project to provide
work for individuals he had friendly relations with. Our witness says he saw
ILM funds used to provide a cheap workforce on behalf of a construction company
with links to Labour.
* A charity linked to the Council in
the East End of Glasgow is under investigation by Audit Scotland. The complaint alleges it is managed by Gary
Hay. Board members include relatives of
Councillor George Redmond, Councillor Frank McAveety and Councillor Yvonne
Kucuk. The Audit Scotland complaint
alleges fake board members and fraudulent payouts to board members.
* Councillor George Redmond,
Councillor Yvonne Kucuk, Councillor Frank McAveety, Ronnie Saez, and a range of
business and family associates are all business associates. Most of these commercial relationships
substantially predate the GERA £500,000 payout to Saez and have continued years
after.
* Despite very unfavourable public
impressions, which include the perception that David Crawford acted
inappropriately during the closure of the Accord Centre, the 54 year old
outgoing social work boss David Crawford retired on a £600,000 severance
package. This adds to the perception of
malpractice, and at a time of stringent budget cuts affecting users of the
social work department's services it seems particularly inappropriate.
* A clear case of malfeasance: Council
department boss Robert Booth has apparently engaged in insider trading with his
brother's firm Viridor (derailing ‘combined heat and power’ greener, more
affordable energy across the city by years) and retired on a bumper severance
package immediately afterwards.
* The Council systematically tells
homeless people it has a statutory duty to house that there is ‘no accommodation
available’ A Freedom of Information Act response from the council shows that
this occurs 23.8% of the time, in clear breach of Scottish Government rules.
* SEC Ltd, which runs the SECC has a
debilitating high payouts culture. SEC
is a private company whose majority shareholder is Glasgow City Council. According to a number of Councillors the firm
is loss making. Nonetheless the firm
paid the highest salary of *any* public official this year. It also made significant payouts to
Councillors who were on the Board of the firm for less than 12 months. In two payments Councillor Redmond was able
to charge over £10,000 for his leadership services to the loss making Council
controlled company.
* Margaret Jaconelli who was evicted
from her bought house in 2011, whose home was compulsorily purchased to make
way for the Commonwealth Games has never been paid any CPO money. Mrs Jaconelli's home was valued at over
£90,000. The Council told her she had to
accept a £30,000 payout by way of compensation.
Years later she has not received any compensation at all, but was
forcibly evicted from her home by police, acting on behalf of the Council. The campaign has been told that others in Mrs
Jaconelli's position have not come forward to claim compensation because they
fear reprisals from East End Councillors.
We cannot verify if this is true, but if so it is an indictment of the
relationship between the local authority and its Citizens.
* George Square revisited: The affair
led to a police investigation, and other legal action against the Council, and
according to recent press it may return to the Courts. The failed consultation
process cost Glasgow taxpayers almost £100,000.
* In the past few days two officials
have been suspended following financial irregularities.
* We highlight the profiles of two
Glasgow Councillors: George Redmond and Sohan Singh whose commercial and public
affairs we believe merit much greater scrutiny.
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