18 April (Part 3) - Don’t tell Audit
I think I promised a bit of a history lesson for today about Bexley’s unenviable record in the
honesty stakes to satisfy all the new readers that the council very
kindly directed my way. It’s not an easy job; I have before me a pile of papers
22 millimetres thick when compressed, all concerned with the Ian Clement expenses
cover-up alone. Far too much to put on line, I am going
to have to attempt a different tack.
There have been two local government scandals in London in recent years that
kept the national press occupied for a long time, one still rumbles on and I had
one of the Sundays ask for information for their new investigation only last week.
Both scandals involved Bexley. Coincidence? Probably not. Dishonesty and
scheming has been and continues to be endemic in our benighted borough. Just
look at the latest attempt to subvert democracy.
Probably this short extract from an email, redacted under Freedom of Information rules, but telling just the same,
sums it all up. (Click image for complete email.)
It is pretty well known that
former Bexley council leader Ian Clement left to work for Boris Johnson (Mayor
of London) and while there misbehaved with his mayoral credit card. It wasn’t a
huge amount of money, just £227 if I remember correctly, but he was given a
suspended prison sentence for it just the same.
Back here in Bexley our Ian had a council credit card too, no one of any note knew about
it according to our current leader. Believe that if you like. An investigation
showed that Mr. Clement had spent £2,087.85 that couldn’t be justified. If the council’s
website is up to date it has not been recovered 20 months after the
investigation was completed.
Mr. Clement got up to all sorts of tricks like staying
at hotels overnight when an early morning journey would have been easy enough, but mainly
it was wining and dining. One ‘lunch’ bill was settled after ten in the evening.
Quite some lunch and quite some bill but no one at all at Bexley council knew anything about
anything. Not his deputy, the current leader Teresa O’Neill, not the top brass, no one.
I wonder who signed off the council cheque. Presumably whoever it was who sent the email above.
Among the many people entertained at public expense was the then Chief Executive
Nick Johnson and the incoming replacement Will Tuckley. Nick went off on a
sickness pension of £50,000 a year and a golden goodbye said to exceed
£300,000. He’s been in the news on and off ever since because this sick man
charged straight into a new £260k. job with Hammersmith and Fulham council. Bexley tax
payers continue to fund his pension and it is all legal. There is a detailed report of these
shenanigans on
the Daily Mail website. The Sunday paper journalist who said he was working on
another exposé asked if I knew what sickness afflicted Nick Johnson. He
should have looked at the
Hammersmith & Fulham Conservatives’ website which says that Nick Johnson suffered a heart attack while working for
Bexley council and that he didn’t really want to leave. I suppose that is
why he needed such a large sum to persuade him that he should.
A few paragraphs here is a totally inadequate summary of the events of 2009 but
the local press summarised it quite well.
The News Shopper’s report is worth a read and some newspaper
cuttings which have otherwise disappeared from view are indexed on this site.
For in depth research a complete list of the queried expenditure is
available here
and Bexley council’s final report on credit card use is also available on-line.(PDF file.)