Meic Sullivan-Gould, a Past President of the Association of Council Secretaries & Solicitors, has ruffled a few feathers since becoming interim monitoring officer at Tower Hamlets council in January.
I’m told he’s a great fan of Private Eye and that he believes he’s a real bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out town hall wrongdoing.
He’s something of a travelling wilbury in local government circles. Councils queue up for his consultancy services, it seems. He must be the best thing since sliced bread. He’s an expert. In everything.
Except keeping counsel as a good lawyer perhaps should.
Within a few short weeks of of working in Tower Hamlets the white knight of local government was letting it be known there was nothing to investigate. He, Meic, had given the council and Mayor Lutfur Rahman a clean bill of health.
Nothing to be seen here, you pesky journalists and opposition councillors; run along now.
How he had managed to go through the books and processes of the council is such a short space of time, I have no idea. He must be superhuman.
And so confident was he of his thorough investigation, he took to Facebook as the Panorama programme was airing on Monday night.
The man he is chatting to is Mark Hynes, the director of law at Lambeth Council, who, significantly, is the President of the Lawyers in Local Government. So a heavy hitter. I’m not sure he’ll be most impressed about Meic’s privacy settings.
So what we learn is that Mark Hynes is shocked by Panorama’s findings. “Where were all the officers?” he asks. “..it would seem that the Bengalis through the mayor and cabinet are doing what they want.”
I’m not sure “the Bengalis” is a term he’d like to use again. And I think the headhunters will knock no more about him moving to LBTH.
But Meic doesn’t pick him up on his use of language. Instead he berates Mark for taking a view. In fact, Meic goes further: He offers his expert political analysis. “The mayor’s support will be galvanised by their unfair coverage….chances of a free fair and credible election diminished by an unnecessarily contentious rehash of longstanding unproven allegations!”
Remember, Meic had just watched a programme proving a dubious relationship between the Mayor and Channel S. Meic thought there were Chinese walls in place surrounding Mohammed Jubair’s work for the broadcaster and as a mayoral media adviser.
So in Meic’s view, Lutfur is not the Bad Mayor, but a good guy. Clean bill of health.
Part of his job, of course, is to be impartial on many matters, and to retain the trust of members and officers. He may just have lost that. They almost yearn for the return of his predecessor Isabella Freeman. I’m not sure he can hang around too much longer.
That’ll give him time to scour the pages of Private Eye (for articles about himself.)
Or return to his thoughtful musings on Twitter..
Trial by Jeory 
All well and good. In the interests of balance and scrutiny, maybe someone should invite him to look over Newham’s books. Especially regarding London Pleasure Gardens and Newham Community Recycling!
Interesting. In the interests of balance and scrutiny, maybe someone should invite him to look over Newham’s books. Especially regarding London Pleasure Gardens and Newham Community Recycling!
Ted,
Thank you for exposing more of the disgusting Local Government s*** that costs the public massive amounts of money.
Unseen by the public exists a massive Local Government Gravy Train, entirely funded by the tax payers – national and Council Tax – which puts unelected and accountable to the public people in top influential positions of power to preside over people’s lives yet have neither connection to, or affinity with, the local community. I am confident local people could do the same job better and at half the cost.
These professional Fat Cats should be licensed by law and always accountable to the public for their actions and decisions. Open and transparent local government should require councils to put the full costs of employing these rich itinerants on the council’s web site.
Curious Cat.
whoops ……. unaccountable to the public
Here Here CC….. I have been involved for many years with the revitalisation of Chrisp Street market…my contacts at Poplar Harca are great and I get asked to join them re various think tank groups…one of these think tanks groups sessions I attended I gace reps from the GLA all of my research and value based strategies re Chrispt Street market…..they wrote it all done…..weeks later composed an 11pg doc with all my insights, sustainable tactics etc…and charged the Mary Portas street scheme £40K…..!!!! BTW my insights were given for free, my ROI is that my local markest gets better and I don;t have to cycle over an hour every Sat to Walthamstow market….
BUT you’re right in your opnion
AM,
Essentially it is simply about serving the public, not one’s pockets or one’s ego.
CC.
see also http://www.sullivan-gould.com/
I’d be interested to hear who – independent of the Council – can vouch for the fact he is so highly regarded. The website is notably free of a list of clients. Most unusual.
I’m just wondering if he is so confident in the processes within the Council whether he could maybe explain how come the response to a Freedom of Information query was that the Council does not maintain any records as to ethnicity or community benefiting from different grant applications.
Presumably answered by somebody who didn’t see the confidential pink papers which got an airing on Panorama and which very clearly indicated which community the grant application related to?
So where does the buck stop in relation to LIES told to the public by council officers in response to Freedom of Information Application queries?
Would that be with the Monitoring Officer?
(Note: The query arises from the information Curios Cat provided on another post starting at https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/decriminalise-heroin-in-tower-hamlets-and-moses-clubs-in-every-school-a-piece-by-nick-mcqueen-ukips-candidate-for-mayor/#comment-16926 )
Ah the Pink Papers.
I used to have a scanner that removed all the pink and produced white pages with crisp easy to read black letters. The software also extracted the text.
Wonder if I can buy another ? LBTH has made me conscious of the importance of scanners 😉
No conspiracy here I’m afraid. The papers on Panorama did not ‘clearly indicate which community the grant application related to’.
The whistleblower has stated publicly (http://voiceofbangla.co.uk/) that one of her first tasks she was assigned was to identify from their names which organisations had Bengali directors.
So actually it’s a bit lazy for us to refer to them as Bengali organisations – more properly, they’re organisations whose director has a Bengali name.
As a comparison, the council’s public health director Somen Banerjee, who joined from the NHS, has a Bengali name. That doesn’t mean the council’s public health services are only for Bengalis – and equally, having a director with a Bengali name doesn’t mean these organisations necessarily cater predominantly for the Bengali community, although some may do, of course.
…look in to my eyes, not around my eyes, you’re feeling very sleepy, everything at Tamlets is fine….
You really need to go and wind up your BBC iPlayer and watch it again. In fact if Ted had the facility for posting photos I’d show you exactly the shot where the camera panned across the pages and there was a very clear column identifying communities.
It’s entirely normal for grants to identify which groups they are trying to assist. Why on earth wouldn’t you?
What’s abnormal is somebody pretending they don’t ask the question and don’t have the data.
Iplayer ? Never use proprietary closed-source software.
If you are thinking of names of community groups etc, perhaps I can look again at my HDD recording and take a few snaps for Ted to consider posting on here – let me know.
CC.
Oldford1 appears to have a vested interest in making us not believe our own eyes and ears. He also wants us to believe black is white and when it suits him that white is black. Sorry Mark it’s quite clear: Lutfur funds charities (etc) on the basis of ethnicity and Panorama investigates all.
In the interests of fairness can I categorically state Oldford is NOT Marc Francis. And before anyone asks, he hasn’t asked me to say that.
Yes, where are the officers indeed. My reaction in a nutshell. The point is that LBTH has no Chief Executive. It would be s/he that would say to the Mayor ‘I’m sorry, no. You cannot (eg) raid the reserves for revenue purposes.’ In the absence of this. nobody else is prepared to stand up to him, either because they have been appointed because they will say yes or because they are too scared or because they haven’t the status.
Oh and remember, when Lutfur was Leader, he got rid of one of the best CEOs of recent years. Answers on a postcard as to why.
Agrred Michael, I am annoyed as I have said before with the past Labour national gov the current Lab admin and the current coalition nat gov.
How can you tell me we can have a Public enquiry on who called who a ruddy Pleb…YET we cannot get some kind of auditor and or SFO team in there….though having read another thread from Ted herein…..I am aghast…either that investigative officer was bought out OR he is being blackmailed…OR…the system has a way of employing incompetent fakes.
LBTH admin…the whole ruddy lot should be put under emergency admin…just like Lehmans, MF Global, etc when a Co goes belly up the auditors and emergency administrators move in. Legals start taking testimonials…..
I have been consistently saying very publicly for the last 8 or more years that English local government needs a regulator. The only existing avenue is a lonely journey to the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand WC2, funded from one’s own pocket while one’s opponents have unlimited access to public funds to smash you down and then jump all over you.
OFWAT, OFCOM,. OFGEN and OF everything else but no OF local gov ?
The nearest is the farcical, stupid and utterly ridiculous Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) – no powers, not even to blow out a lit match.
Living with a corrupt, expensive, depressing local government authoritarian, uncaring monster is, I suggest, a breech of Human Rights, Article 3
No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The central government (HMG) may shudder at the mention of Tower Hamlets but they lack interest and have to be forced or embarrassed into action – and then their action is often unimpressive and weak.
Curious Cat
The interesting thing about LBTH is it is rapidly becoming the sort of basket case that Lambeth was during the Ted Knights era. Good quality council officers start to avoid it because they don’t want their CVs tainted.
What LBTH needs is somebody like Heather Rabbatts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Rabbatts who became the CEO of Lambeth after the job was advertised as the worst job in local government (or some such attention grabber).
This is an interesting account of her approach to dealing with difficult men http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-business/10467631/FA-director-Heather-Rabbatts-I-dont-take-on-challenging-roles-to-be-Miss-Popularity.html
I think the technical acronym is OMFG.
PS as each day passes my “paranoid” ramblings about a plot seem less absurd
Is it any surprise that a bengali person sided with Rahman. Birds of a feather flock together and all that. Nothing in the BBC programme was factually wrong and all that was claimed was backed up with clear evidence.
I doubt she is a journalist at all. More of a junior researcher. Maybe she could get a job working for east end shite, or whatever the council propaganda rag is called. Be about her level.
As for Rahman, he has forced 2 white Chief Execs out in the last 5 years and tried to impose a bengali one. And he has the cheek to call others racist.
I didn’t realise Meic was Bengali…
Oh do catch up! The reference relates to the Acting CEO who didn’t get the job – which led to a massive payout (£100k?) when Mrs High and Mighty advised Rahman one way and it turned out the advice was incorrect. At least that was the conclusion I drew from the fact that
(1) said individual received a very big compensation payment after being the Acting CEO
(2) Mrs High and Mighty left under a cloud
I could be wrong – I’m sure if the Council would like to tell us the whys and wherefores of the rationale behind that massive payout of taxpayers money we’d all love to hear it.
It really is about time that somebody asked what is the total sum paid out by the Council because Rahman has got rid of two excellent CEOs and goodness knows how many others he’s not got on with. Maybe Mr Pickles could find out for us given we’re obviously being fobbed off with response to FOI queries.
The main problem with the role of Mayor and the type of person it attracts is it gives those who become Mayor the notion that they’ve just inherited some sort of personal fiefdom where they can get rid of people they don’t like irrespective of the cost to the taxpayer.
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