BERTIES OFF FOR SOME R&R

Have had an offer to stay in Ibiza for a couple of weeks to look after a villa, so Bertie is legging it.
My apologies to readers, but I am not good at long distance blogging so all will be quiet on Strife for the next two weeks.
.
I will be leaving a team behind to look at and analyse, TDC's wasteful maladministration of Maritime Services; the costs of Housing Repairs & Maintenance and the utter contempt for TDC Contract Procedure Rules; all exposed by EKAP but not even mentioned by The Audit Commission in its report of 2008/9.
.
The cost of electricity to the tax-payer , at Margate Harbour is being looked at as well as an enormous grant paid to refurbish Royal York Mansions that is connected to a TDC Councillor who declared an 'interest'.
.
All interesting stuff, but late summer sunshine is now the priority. Hopefully, the latest Blog War will be over by the time I return.

BLUE FORCES LOSE STRONGHOLD IN WIKIPEDIA

Rumours of a truce in the latest Thanet Blog War were clearly ill-founded. After losing ground in last year's Blog War in Wikipedia, it would seem that Blue Forces have been expelled from the territory. The picture above shows a member of the Eddytaws striking back as Blue Forces were pushed out of the territory.
.
The latest Red Forces Bulletin ( see http://www.marknottingham.blogspot.com/ ) accuses Blue Forces of breaches of The Wikipedia Convention. Blue Forces Commander, whilst being silent about this set-back and restrained about claims that Blue Forces breached any Conventions, clearly had some fire-fighting difficulties with other 'Boys in Blue' and their geographical ignorance yesterday. ( see http://www.birchington.blogspot.com/).
.
We will have to wait and see if a Jedi Knight can mediate successfully and bring a swift conclusion to the conflict before The Emperor returns and calls in his Standard Bearers.
The August 'Silly Season' will soon be over, hopefully.

THE QUALITY OF MERCY AND A MAN, WE BRITISH, SHOULD BE PROUD OF

I watched Channel 4 News on Thursday evening and listened closely to what The Scottish Justice Secretary had to say when being questioned about releasing Megrahi, the only man convicted for the Lockerbie Bombing.

.

As he talked of compassion and the fact that Megrahi was being released to return to his family to die, I felt proud to be British.

.

The ensuing howls of rage from the USA were to be expected but let us pause and consider for a moment the nature of USA Governments and their actions. This is a country that executes its citizens, often after years on Death Rows, electrocuting, gassing, injecting or shooting them. It is a country that kidnaps 'suspects' and transports them around the world to various sordid prisons and tortures them. It is a country that holds foreign nationals in in-humane conditions for years without trial or due legal process. It is a country that for years allowed the IRA to raise millions of dollars to fund weapons and explosives used by terrorists to kill and maim British soldiers and British citizens in Northern Ireland and throughout the UK. Mrs Clinton even accompanied her husband to N Ireland and welcomed the premature release of hundreds of convicted terrorists, many who were psychopaths, as part of the 'Peace Process'.

.

I do not believe a man like Kenny MacAskill, was motivated by pressure from Westminster or from his own First Minister to release Megrahi in some sort of sordid trade deal. MacAskill has always been his own man and I believe his claim that nothing other than compassion, which is an integral part of The Scottish Judicial system, motivated him to allow Megrahi to return home to Libya to die.

.

I am surprised at David Cameron's present position on this matter. It does him no credit. I hope that Brown continues to maintain a dignified silence on the issue on the grounds that it was a decision by a Scottish Justice Secretary.

.

We should be proud today that we have a man of principle like Kenny Macaskill in our political system and that in the face of predictable condemnation from a barbaric and uncivilised nation that the USA has become, he at least understood the meaning of these words from The Merchant of Venice:

.

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:"

A TRUCE IN THANET BLOG WAR 2009 UNLIKELY?

It was interesting to see that Cllr Mark Nottingham has taken down a certain posting and its comments today, although Thanet's Premier Blog has a link to the original still (go and visit www.eastcliffrichard.blogspot.com )

.

.

I cannot see any reciprocation over at Thanet Life though. At least Cllr Moores is blogging happily away still and even visiting ECR to comment. 'Blue Forces' seem to be exuding confidence by the look of things.

.

I must say I enjoyed the snippet on ECR about Cllr Broadhurst 'as the member for Panama' posted by Cllr Moores. Was this deliberate or a Freudian slip?

.

It matters not, as Bertie's assessment of the situation at the moment, is that 'Red Forces' may have been agreeing to a 'truce' that has not been reciprocated and are preparing to resume operations. What else is one to make of this extract on Thanet's Premier Blog this evening from Cllr Mark Nottingham:

.

"Simon knows full well what is going on but is being disingenuous and misrepresentating the situation. All will be revealed in the not too distant future. Hopefully Simon will do the right thing."
6:13 PM

THE ARROGANCE OF TDC LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICERS

My thanks to today's Your Thanet for this item! As I was unable to reproduce their piccie, I have transcribed, as accurately as possible, a sign on the 3rd Floor at TDC, spotted by an intrepid Your Thanet reporter at last month's Full Council Meeting and photographed.

.

I can forgive flu spelled as flue and singular when plural is needed ( although this tells us something about the poor level of education of the probably highly paid author, with possibly the most generous pension scheme in Thanet) but what I cannot forgive is the arrogance implied in this notice.

.

"the germs on commuters is pretty awful" seems to me to sum up the arrogant attitude of staff employed by TDC to serve us, the community and tax-payers.

.

Fellow citizens who pay the wages and generous pensions of illiterate and arrogant Local Government Officers might just be offended as I am at the implication that we are dirty, unwashed and germ ridden.

.

Most of us might not enjoy a tax-payer funded TDC car-loan; a generous motor mileage allowance and reserved parking in Mill Lane that TDC staff can enjoy and may just have to use the Loop, as dirty unwashed plebs but please remember TDC staff, that your status used to be described as 'public servants' and we the public, your paymasters, do not like insults being added to the injuries of a catalogue of your inept and incompetent administration.

TDC - HAS IT BECOME A COSTLY FARCE UNDER EZEKIEL?

Whilst the Blog War 2009 hots up with a disappearance on Wikipedia, Richard Card interested in RM Reservists and the old chestnut of a Ph.D from Pacific Western University being raised, it is perhaps time to concentrate on the costly farce that TDC has become in the past few years.
.
(My thanks to Tim Garbutt for information gained from an FOI request and Michael Child for his picture.)
.
TDC is one of Thanet's larger employers with over 708 staff (full time equivalent given as 708.27). The total payroll costs are £18,220,679.14 but with all the extras the Gross Total cost is £21, 750, 577.88. This is an AVERAGE COST to the tax-payer of £30,721.
.
The Local Government Pension Contributions for 708 FTE staff costs the tax-payer almost £2 million per annum at £1,926,721.19 which is an average of £2,721. No wonder the Local Government Pension Scheme is so generous and according to actuaries, unsustainable.
.
What is really interesting is the expenses bill. There appears to be a modest £15,343 claimed but the mind boggles at the cost of Total Car Expenses (£185,005.81) and leased car costs of £22,346. So despite Thanet being a pretty small place with an excellent Loop Bus Service and with TDC having its own large transport fleet, car expenses exceed £200,000 per annum. An employee can buy a car with a TDC loan and then drive it around with an overly generous allowance that will more than help pay for it.
.
TDC is broken up into 'service' areas and Environmental Services has 272 FTE staff; the average cost is £25,000 per employee. There is no doubt that our street cleaners and dustmen do a great job and I do not begrudge this modest amount.
.
The costliest per head areas are Finance and Services with an average of £36,582 per FTE and Executive Unit with an average of £44,599 per FTE. The obvious point is that in terms of wages in the local Thanet economy, we are paying some very high salaries for officers in finance and in the Executive.
.
These are the very people who, according to TDC's own Internal Audit process (EKAP) are responsible for:
1. Loss to the tax-payer and inept and possibly corrupt management of Maritime Services.
2. Loss to the tax-payer and inept and possibly corrupt management of Housing Maintenance and Repairs.
3. A complete and utter disregard of TDC's own Contract Procedure Rules when spending tax-payer's money on goods and services to the extent where 55% of all spending is estimated as being NON COMPETITIVE!
.
The latest nonsense, exposed by Tony Flaig, is that logging of Cllr attendance, which is linked to an attendance allowance for Cllrs seems to be amiss. If we can cannot rely on the attendance record of 23 July 2009, can we rely on any of the previous records of attendance?
.
I am beginning to think that the present regime running TDC needs to have a very close look at what its staff are up to or not up to, get better service from them and take steps to eradicate waste and unnecessary costs and ensure that opportunities for corruption or inappropriate accounting are eradicated.
.
Is there a case for Central Government to take a closer interest? One might even consider that 'Our Leader' and his 'Deputy' would be better off in Panama and thus let others take their places!

ERUPTION OF BLOG WARS AND STRAW MEN?

Oh, dear! Bertie goes into low-profile for a few days and on return to 'blog-sphere' discovers that Thanet Blog Wars have erupted again after an 18 month suspension of hostilities.
.
Some readers might remember the headline from Your Thanet in Feb 2008, the disappearance of Thanetonian (One Voice), nobbled ECR and the opening of a Wikipedia Front and self suspension of Thanet Life.
.
It would seem that some of the same issues have been raised again and we have Cllr Mark Nottingham at one end of Kent ( http://www.marknottingham.blogspot.com/ ); Cllr Simon Moores at Thanet Life ( http://www.birchington.blogspot.com/ ) and Matt B at Thanet Star ( http://www.thanetstar.com/ ) exchanging opening salvoes. As a keen observer and reporter of the last round of hostilities, I suspect that there is a sharper edge to the present exchanges. Int Cells and Research Teams will be busy again, no doubt!
.
The issue that interests Bertie more at the moment is what is 'Our Leader' doing about our absent 'Straw Man', Cllr 'Panama' Broadhurst? One must assume that his embarrassingly low profile in Dane Valley and at TDC Council Meetings will lead to a vacancy in Dane Valley Ward very soon.

I would not be surprised to see an election for a new Cllr taking place this autumn, and I hope some 'Ind Conservatives' will come forward. If there is any-one considering this, they should get off the starting block now and follow Laura Sandys' example and start promoting themselves as 'Prospective Independent Cllr for Dane Valley'. I would also urge Thanet Labour Group to gear -up now and get on and try and win a seat back that they should never have lost.

.

You can bet that 'Our Leader' is already considering and trying to influence the choice of a new prospective Conservative Cllr and I await with interest to see if we end up with another husband and wife team at TDC or a face from the past.

.

Off now to look for a tin-helmet and check that no great crested newts have taken up residence in the Biggles' Bunker.

A BELATED 'GALE'S VIEW'

I have been rather preoccupied with domestic matters for the past week and missed our North Thanet MP's View, last week. I attach it for interest. What you might not grasp is the fact that our servicemen and women can find themselves sweltering in Afghanistan one year and freezing their butts off in The Falklands, the next.

GALE'S VIEW - 5th Aug 2009

On top of Poon Hill, overlooking the Mount Pleasant military base in the Falkland Islands, there is a roughly made "signpost" erected by some homesick servicemen. It points towards Wembley, East London ………and Herne Bay. Standing in the biting wind in two feet of snow on that hilltop alongside one of the Rapier missile batteries that defend the base last week I mentally thanked that soldier for a reminder that many of us tend to forget that the task of defending our security and our interests in the far-flung and sometimes bleak corners of the earth is carried out by real men and women whose homes and families are not very far away from our own.
While attention is clearly and rightly focussed at present on the conflict and the loss of life and injury that is taking place in Afghanistan we need to remember that the second-largest overseas commitment of soldiers, sailors and airman around the globe is still in the Falkland Islands. And with very good reason. These islands, which one of my young constituents gave his life seeking to recapture nearly thirty years ago, are not only home to a significant British population but are geographically and strategically vital to our global security and to our presence in the Southern ocean and Antarctica. In tandem with the staging post of Ascension Island, in mid-Atlantic, they offer a base and the eyes and ears of our security services that reach across half of the world.
We left RAF Brize Norton, two members of the House of Peers and three Members of the House of Commons, a week ago. We went to visit, in Antarctic midwinter, our troops, our airmen and our sailors to both learn of their needs and difficulties and to express our appreciation for the job that they are doing, day and night, on our behalf. In the event our arrival and Falkland experience were curtailed by the worst snowstorm that the Islands have experienced in twenty years, that closed the Mount Pleasant airfield for three days and that left us temporarily marooned on that lump of volcanic rock that is known as Ascension Island and that has been a British Outpost, now an Overseas Territory, since Royal Marines were first stationed there in 1815.
While the delay cost us some time on the ground in the Falklands it also gave us the opportunity to receive in-depth briefing from the Commander British Forces, South Atlantic, who was travelling with us, and from our military escort. The latter has just finished a spell of duty with his regiment, 2 Para, in Helmand province in Afghanistan and we were usefully able to hear at very first hand and with chilling detail the reality of life and death on reconnaissance patrol in that theatre of war.
We made it to The Falklands in time to spend one night on board our South Atlantic patrol ship, the frigate HMS Gloucester, and to meet and talk with at least some of the personnel on the Mount Pleasant base. We were also privileged to watch as one of our very few women fast-jet pilots took off on a sortie in her Tornado to clock up a record-breaking two thousand hours of jet flying time.
We travelled some sixteen thousand miles during our week away, the last twelve thousand of them in thirty-six hours. It was worth every inch and every minute of the time. I am left in no doubt at all that what we are militarily engaged in is both necessary and right and that those ill-informed armchair liberals of the "commentariat" who seek to belittle the work that is being done deserve only our contempt.
Next time you visit a supermarket in Margate or Herne Bay please pause and reflect that if you took way from the store everything that arrives in the United Kingdom by sea there would be just 20% of the goods left on the shelves. It is the men and women of our armed forces that go a very long way towards ensuring that we are able to enjoy, in relative peace, not just the essentials but the luxuries of life that we take for granted. We owe them a huge and enduring debt of gratitude - and if the man or woman who erected the "Herne Bay" sign at the top of Poon Hill is reading this, I owe them a very large drink: please get in touch and claim it!

MEARS GROUP, TDC AND A SCANDAL IN TDC's HOUSING REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE WORK?

I have looked at Audit matters for some time now and so far we have had the following:

1. TDC's inept management of Ramsgate Harbour through Maritime Services.

2. Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) being blatantly ignored by TDC Officers.

3. The recent farce and waste of tax payers money concerning TDC's Vehicle Insurance. (vehicles insured when not held and a vehicle held but not insured!)

.

The next issue I would like to look at is a 'cover-up' within TDC concerning problems with its Housing Repairs & Maintenance arrangements which involves Mears Group and the 'partnership' that requires the spending of over £1,000,000 per year. The Mears Group has had amazing growth in the past 12 years under Bob Holt and has recently announced a £290 million contract for 10 years with Brighton & Hove Council. To see more about Mears, visit:

http://www.mearsgroup.co.uk/home_1.aspx?id=1:29669

.

The story behind what went wrong in Housing Repairs & Maintenance is obscure because of a veil of secrecy drawn over it by TDC. I have had to glean snippets from TDC's own documents to realise that something serious was brought to light.

.

It would seem that TDC's audit team, East Kent Audit Partnership (EKAP) reported to Governance & Audit Committee on 27 Sep 2007 that Housing Repairs & Maintenance had a 'reasonable level of assurance'. However on 12 Dec 2007 , EKAP reported to Committtee its 'special investigation' into Housing Repairs & maintenance would need 18 days and not the agreed 10 days. What special investigation?

.

We now move to Governance & Audit Committee of 25 Mar 2008. Here EKAP show they have now spent 20 days not 18 on a 'Repairs Special Investigation'. There is no mention about what is going on but this snippet:

.

'Councillor Peppiatt raised his concern that there was no mention of contractors such as Mears not performing; Nikki Morris confirmed that this issue was contained in theme 4.'

.

At this stage the veil of secrecy and confusion descends! There is a Committtee Meeting shown as taking place on SUNDAY 8th June 2008 with an agenda for 26th June 2008 and for some reason the EKAP quarterly report is not attached or accessible! Then we find out that a 'Special Meeting' of The Governance & Audit Committtee was held on 11th March 2008 that was not even shown on TDC's website as having happened!

.

In the Agenda for 26 June 2008, this item is shown with an exclusion notice of public and press:

12.MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE GOVERNANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEE HELD ON 11 MARCH 2008
'To approve the confidential minutes of the Special Governance and Audit Committee meeting held on 11 March 2008, copy attached for members of the committee.'

The minutes of 26 June 2008 also reveal this:

'Councillor Green had concerns that Mears had their contract renewed for a year and the amount of time needed to make alternative arrangements. Sue McGonigal explained that the problem had been dealt with so it was not detrimental to the Council, and that the contract extension was a necessary interim measure.'

.

You will need to grasp at this stage, that by June 2008, we have Mears being mentioned as not performing; concerns with Mears' contract being renewed; special secret meetings of The Governance & Audit Committee on 11 March 2008 and possibly on 8 June 2008 and public excluded from the meeting of 26 June 2008. What was going on?

.

The Agenda of the Committtee Meeting of 24 Sep 2008 starts to give an insight into what was going on regarding the contract with TDC and Mears acting in 'partnership'. Fuller details are shown at:

http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Data/Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee/20080924/Agenda/$Agenda%20Enclosure%207.doc.pdf

.

This is the Business Objective for Housing Repairs & Maintenance:
'To ensure that the housing stock is well maintained, providing a good level of
service to Council tenants, in partnership with the Council’s contractors and in
accordance with Council policy and procedures.'

.

EKAP in its report to Committtee covered its work from 1st June-31st Jul 2008 and it was still not happy with things:

.

'The follow-up audit review concludes that management can place no
assurance on the controls in place.' (This is a NIL assurance rating!)

.

'The previous audit report regarding the alleged fraudulent activities by “Rogue
Traders” employed by the Contractor have been followed up by the EKAP to
ensure that the highlighted major key control failings ........."

.

'There remains however significant concern over the level of supervision by
the Council for responsive repairs.'

.

"Whilst some recommendations have been implemented and improvements
have been made ......... this has not prevented SOME OVERCHARGING FROM RECURRING. (my capitals). Indeed, it is disappointing to find that whilst the contractor appears to have made efforts to ensure the problems previously experienced are eliminated, the Council’s response is complacent that it will not happen again. In particular, there is a lack of vigorous follow ups, inadequate on site visual post inspections of all categories of responsive works and THE COUNCIL ARE CURRENTLY UNABLE TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE ASSURANCE THAT THE WORKS BEING CHARGED FOR HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN CARRIED OUT. (my capitals) It is therefore suggested that a further follow up of this review be undertaken in six month’s time."

.

"The CREDIT NOTE from Mears should be applied to the next available payment and
the correct approach regarding how this is recorded, allocated and accounted for in
the correct year...".

.

"It is vital to monitor the contractor; the only control that the Council has to ensure it is
not being overcharged is to physically inspect the works and compare the scheduled items listed on the ticket to the works."

.

Readers are now hopefully getting a picture about what went on in Housing Repairs & Maintenance! This is what TDC's Financial Services Manager told the Councillor Committee members on 24 Sep 2008:

"Sue McGonigal informed members of the Governance and Audit Committee that the housing repairs and maintenance post inspection controls were much improved. She added that the follow up audit would be done by the council and not by Mears and that the original audit cost had also been met by Mears."

.

So 'rogue traders'; overcharging; lack of supervision and control by TDC; repayments and audit costs being met by Mears? One can picture the situation with just a little imagination. A person was taken out of post but was there a criminal investigation and were Kent Police called in to investigate? If so, what was the outcome? Or has the whole business been covered up even more?

.

It seems to be a classic case of TDC not checking properly and paying out tax-payers money for jobs not done. Incompetent management by TDC looks as if it led to fraud ! How big was the loss to the tax-payer? Who has been sacked? Why was Mears' contract extended? Has anyone been held to account?

.

On 9 Dec 2008, The Governance & Audit Committtee had a NIL assurance still for Housing Repairs & Maintenance from EKAP despite Sue McGonigals assurances to our Cllrs in September!

.

At its meeting on 17th March this year, with yet another NIL assurance for Housing Repairs & Maintenance the Committtee was requested by EKAP to authorise yet more time for investigations as follows:

Housing Repairs Follow up: - 15 days.

Mears Continuing Investigation: - 7 days. The reasons cited were as follows:

' High risk due to whistle blowing, risk of fraud and low assurance of previous audit.'

.

The latest report by EKAP to committee , was about 6 weeks ago, on 25 June 2009. EKAP outlined that the simple measures of checking invoiced work before paying had now been implemented with other checks made and at last, Housing Repairs & Maintenance now has REASONABLE assurance! There were no details of the results of their 22 days follow-up or investigation!

.

Well, it's nice to know that after 18 months of Audit work by EKAP, the tax-payer can have some confidence that TDC is not wasting our money anymore on Housing Repairs & Maintenance. What I would dearly love to know is how much money does EKAP estimate was lost and for how long was this awful situation running? How much was Mear's Credit note for and was this a repayment for over-charging?

.

Well I hope we can look to a better future now that Canterbury Council is going to be involved. Last Friday was the closing date for tenders to be placed for a joint TDC and Canterbury Responsive reapairs contract worth £2,700,000 per year to start on 1st Jan 2010, with TDC's share being £1,100,000. In light of past experience, will Mears be considered?

TDC AUDITORS STILL UNHAPPY WITH CONTRACT PROCEDURE COMPLIANCE!

A snippet in today's Telegraph revealed that Bob Holloway, who oversees the local government pension scheme for The Dept of Communities and Local Government believes the scheme is unsustainable and unaffordably generous. You might be less pleased to discover that as a pensioner just above the 'council tax credit' limit, that £300 of the average household's Council Tax charge you pay goes to pay bigger local government pensions than yours! I digress.
.
Readers will be aware that I have taken an interest in Audit matters concerning TDC. A question was put by one of my researchers to external auditors as follows:

Q.2 TDC's statement shows 'car loans to employees' in its debtors list. How many loans have been made and what is the total debt for this? (It does beg the question should TDC provide this service to employees!) The answer received was as follows:
.
"There are 4 car loans and the outstanding balance is £28,368.26. The Council do have the powers to provide such a scheme and this is a policy decision for them. According to their policy, the scheme is provided to assist employees in purchasing vehicles as many need the use of a vehicle to carry out their daily work.".
I don't know what you may think about this answer, but I am not pleased. I still digress.
.
Time to talk about Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs). I am sure that you must be aware that TDC has to spend £millions of pounds of tax-payers money to carry out its responsibilities. In order to prevent abuse, corruption or not achieving best value for the tax-payer a strict set of CPRs has to be followed. Simply put, boundaries are put in place for amounts spent and who can authorise them. Upto £10,000 can be authorised by delegated officers on just ONE quote; then upto £75,000 must have THREE quotes; upto the EU threshold of £140,000 the contract has to be advertised and at least 3 tenders sought. Above this threshold tighter competitive tendering is required. My understanding is that above £10,000 must be approved at Cabinet level or waivered consent/delegation made.
.
You will not be pleased to read as I did, that East Kent Audit Partnership (EKAP) first reported in December 2008 that it was concerned that TDC was not meeting its Business Objective:
"To ensure compliance with the Council's Contract Procedure Rules and thereby ensuring that goods and services are acquired at the best cost/value to the Council. " (i.e Tax Payer!)
.
EKAP reviewed a small sample of 20 purchase orders each exceeding £10,000. 6 failed to adhere to CPRs at all; of the other 14, 5 only complied because of a 'waiver'. In other words, 55% of the orders looked at HAD NOT BEEN EXPOSED TO MARKET COMPETITION! (my capitals). As mentioned in an earlier post, EKAP commented that Maritime Services (Ramsgate harbour) had even broken EU rules by disaggregating an order with a supplier into lots of smaller orders to buck the CPR system!
.
In March 2009, EKAP was still unhappy with CPRs in regard to EU Procurement Rules not being followed and allocated a further 5 days of investigation as the matter was considered HIGH RISK due to the findings of the CPR Audit reported in December 2008. Only a few weeks ago, EKAP in its report to Committtee in June 2009, was still unhappy with compliance with CPRs and it has only been given 'Limited Assurance' and EKAP intends to review CPRs further this month as an addition to its 2009/10 Audit programme.
.
EKAP has noted how TDC makes sure, training about and availibility to rules for CPRs on Intranet within TDC are made known to all officers and yet still had this to say only 4 months ago about CPR Compliance (or lack of it)!:

"Limited Assurance level limited for the last two audits. Senior Management Team need to clearly communicate to officers that the Council will not tolerate non-compliance with the Council’s CPRs and will take a firm and robust stance with any future incidents of non-compliance potentially including disciplinary action." (This is blunt speaking from Auditors!)
.
I am scandalised and amazed at this. We as the public need to find out in detail what was spent where, when, with whom and on what , that broke TDC's CPR rules. We also need to raise the question, in light of the apalling situation regarding both CPRs and Maritime Services, how the Senior Council Officers are being held to account on what looks like inept management and widespread lack of compliance that is rife throughout TDC. Don't expect to find this information easily!
.
Before I go and dig further into what looks like some very odd goings on that EKAP have looked at in Housing Repairs & Maintenance, I leave you with this extract from the minutes of The Governance and Audit Committtee of June 2008 to illustrate how hard it is for even our own Councillors to get information and begs the question of who is actually running TDC, our Cllrs or highly paid officers with car loans and unsustainably generous pensions?:
.

"Councillor Cameron raised a query in relation to a question he had asked of an officer in relation to ‘asset disposal policies’. He was asked ‘why do you want to know’? As a Councillor he did not expect to be asked this. Sue McGonigal suggested that the question may have been asked to better understand what information was required. He added that there was too much secrecy and that it could have been a freedom of information disclosure. Councillor Moores added that he had had the same problem trying to get simple answers to simple questions.......".