Exactly seven months after Eric Pickles ordered Government-appointed inspectors to examine the books at Tower Hamlets council, the Communities Secretary will tomorrow publish their findings.
The report from PricewaterhouseCoopers will be published on the DCLG website at 9.30am, just as a written ministerial statement is made in the Commons.
Three hours later, the minister himself will make an oral statement in the chamber outlining the Government’s response.
Only a handful of people know what’s in the report: ie at PwC and at the very top of DCLG.
At this time of writing (about 8.20pm Monday), even Mayor Lutfur Rahman does not know what’s in it. It may be that the report has been sent to the council’s Head of Paid Service, Stephen Halsey, but even that’s not clear. Presumably, Mr Halsey would have to brief Lutfur if he had received it.
So anyone claiming they’ve heard this or that about the report’s findings is quite likely spreading unfounded rumours.
However, it would be a surprise to almost everyone if Eric did not announce he was imposing a new chief executive on the council…at the very least.
Clearly, whether he goes further depends on what has been found.
Lutfur’s camp believe, from the various questions they’ve had to answer and check during the past seven months, that any direct Government intervention, eg the appointment of Commissioners to run procurement and grants, would be vulnerable to a legal challenge.
So we could see more taxpayers’ money spent on legal bills….on top of the cash currently going on lawyers for the judicial review of Eric’s original decision, a hearing due at the High Court on November 14.
When Eric made his initial announcement on April 4 (four days after the Panorama programme), the council “welcomed” the chance to clear its name.
We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that council processes have been run appropriately and to date we have seen no evidence to suggest otherwise. This inspection affords the borough the best opportunity to demonstrate that the borough has acted in the best interests of all residents. We will release further information in due course.
Well, you could say they had a funny way of showing it. There’s a feeling in Whitehall that the council deliberately dragged its heels over supplying information to the auditors.
As I’ve noted before, the inspection has been trying to determine whether the council has achieved “best value” with the public’s money. Handing it to lawyers to try and block that process didn’t go down too well. It fed a narrative.
Has there been any fraud? I have no idea. Certainly, Panorama never made that allegation….although their team did find evidence of a fraud linked to the Brady Youth Forum, as mentioned here.
If the PwC report hasn’t found fraud, expect the Lutfur line to be “I told you so”.
But I’d be astonished if there isn’t severe criticism of the council tomorrow.
A minister like Eric Pickles just doesn’t make oral statements to the Commons so he can have egg chucked in his face.
So over to you, then, Eric, me old chum.
Trial by Jeory 