Council leader Jonathan McColl; Cllr Jim Bollan; George Black; Government Minister Aileen Campbell; Cllr Bollan’s St Valentine’s Day motions to the Council and Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton and Lomond.
By Bill Heaney
West Dunbartonshire Council have caused fury with their report on the allegations of corruption and favouritism in the awarding of contracts worth £ millions, which finally came to the surface in recent weeks.
Councillor Jim Bollan, who had lodged two motions with the Council for their meeting on St Valentine’s Day, said: “Late last night I received a heavily redacted copy of the above report.
“The report is 135 pages long. 87 pages are blank. 34 pages are partially redacted. 14 pages have no words redacted and are the only pages readable.”
He added: “I will be mounting a challenge via the Council’s Legal Department regarding the extreme level of redaction (the deletion of names and other content) which makes the report worthless and provides no information to make an informed judgement on.
“My motion to the Council calls for a “suitably” redacted report, not a document which has 90% of its pages redacted.
It would appear to any reasonable person that the establishment on the Council is determined to cover up this scandal.
“This cannot be allowed to happen. The public has the right to know the facts.”
The report, as published with line after line and paragraph after paragraph blacked out, follows a letter from Chief Executive Joyce White, pictured left, two weeks ago.
The letter said: “As you will be aware a report was presented to Audit Committee on 12 December 2018 which highlighted action taken in response to allegations in relation to the procurement of contracts in Roads and Greenspace. An extensive investigation was undertaken by the Council’s Internal Auditors latterly supported by HR Services.
“This found evidence of procurement issues within the Council and an action plan was developed and implemented to address these, with progress reported to the audit committee.
“A subsequent disciplinary process found there was no basis for action to be taken against any employee.
“Police Scotland also conducted its own investigation, no criminality was established and no action was taken. A newspaper report this week has highlighted this particular audit investigation.
“Audit Scotland has confirmed that they will be reviewing the approach taken by the Council in response to this issue, as part of their routine wider scope audit responsibility. This review is currently underway and the scope and time-frame for issuing the report is being developed.”
Given that he has expressed dismay at the way the Council’s own report has been presented, Cllr Bollan will be pressing for sight of the Audit Scotland inquiry findings.
Dumbarton and Lomond MSP Jackie Baillie, has written to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Aileen Campbell, and the Accounts Commission to highlight allegations.
Following allegations of inappropriate procurement practice, an internal audit of the Council found that some of the contracts which were tendered by the Roads and Greenspace departments between 2013 and 2016 were agreed without following the proper procedure.
The Labour MSP has asked both the Cabinet Secretary and the Accounts Commission to review the practices of the SNP-run council.
Ms Baillie said: “A number of my constituents are concerned about the allegations made about procurement practice in West Dunbartonshire Council.
“Councils are responsible for making sure that they spend the public pound wisely. It is clear that some contracts, which were agreed by council officials in the Roads and Greenspace departments, were not tendered properly, and it has been found that in a number of cases, quotes were not properly obtained for these jobs.
“I have now written to Aileen Campbell, Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, and Caroline Gardner, the Auditor General, to ask whether a review will be carried out to ensure best practice going forward.”
Community Party councillor Bollan, has given notice to the Council that he wants two motions to go before their next full meeting .
The allegations first came into the public domain after ex-councillor George Black from Milton was tipped off by a whistleblower.
Mr Black consulted the police who carried out inquiries and submitted a report to the Council’ s chief executive, but the police inquiries ended when the whistleblower declined to give evidence in court.
Mr Black claims however that he has tried repeatedly to obtain a copy of that report but has been unable to do so. He received a copy of the heavily redacted report earlier today – but not from the Council who have never thanked him for raising the matter.
The Council’s Communications Department refuses to answer questions about this matter – and many others – from The Democrat.
It was revealed in a report which went before the Council’s audit committee in December that Greenspace and the Roads department are the only two areas to have been examined by the auditors – so far.
Greenspace was at the centre of a huge controversy which followed the SNP administration’s decision to make austerity cuts across the council’s parks, cemeteries and open spaces.
Council leader Jonathan McColl, who heads that administration, is part of an SNP ban and boycott of The Democrat.
It would appear that they do not appreciate being asked to expand on, explain, confirm or clarify their business to any publication or follow tradition custom and practice when it comes to dealing with The Democrat, although they do speak to other media.
Other high-spending departments’ accounts and financial transactions have yet to be examined in a similar manner to Greenspace and Roads.