HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL
Chief executive Colin Hilton has steadfastly refused to bring anyone to justice over the mis-rule of Henshaw's evil cabal. But why the cover-up?
We now know that back in March 2006, a dossier of evidence supplied by whistleblowers was presented by former leader Mike Storey to Hilton and new leader, Councillor Warren Bradley.
This evidence concerned amongst other things, The 08 Place, The Summer Pops, the Kensington One Stop Shop and various other supplementary matter
The Head of the council's Internal Audit department, Gerry Callaghan ran panic-stricken from that confidential meeting to tell all to Exec Director Halsall, aka the smiling assassin, who in turn alerted The Li
verpool Rottweiller, McElhinney.
So what did Hilton do in response to the serious issues which had been officially reported to him, by a senior councillor on behalf of the council whistleblowers?
First of all he refused to take any action against Callaghan for breaching a confidential meeting and compromising an internal investigation.
And even though he had discussed with Storey and Bradley calling in the police to investigate the allegations and concerns raised, Hilton then refused to take any further action involving the cops.
Instead he relied on a tame internal audit report which Callaghan, under the direction of Halsall, had hastily compiled which whitewashed the whole thing.
But Hilton did call in external auditors KPMG to mount a detailed investigation, including examining Bradley's increasing concerns about the way McElhinney had been running Liverpool Direct Limited.
- Amongst the issues which have been repeatedly raised are the £200 cost of handling phone calls charged by McElhinney's LDL to the council's Education department.
- The £12,000 annual cost of providing one single LDL computer to one single councillor. (This was what LDL charged to all 90 of the city's councillors, making them the most expensive computers in the universe).
- The constant office moves which were ordered by McElhinney, shifting council staff from one building or floor to another, with crippling charges imposed for carrying out the removals.
- Repeated double-counting of charges, fees and costs for a huge range of IT and other services.
- Wilfully disguising the LDL pricing structure, so no-one could clearly see where all the money was going.
(Do you think the craven Echo might have investigated any of these? ed) As LDL made hay with the money merry go round, Hilton allowed McElhinney to escape the council's clutches by transferring to become chief executive of the joint venture, Liverpool Direct Limited.
Are you with us, so far?
(Every step of the way, ed)
So in other words the alarm had been loudly raised, but the householder then stood twiddling his thumbs and looking the other way, while allowing the burglar to escape with all the loot.
Then in desperation, the legendary Tony Parrish entered the fray, chucking in his grenade of the liverpoolevilcabal blog to blow apart what Hilton was determined to keep hidden (thank you, Tony).
This at least succeeded in forcing Bradley to ignore Hilton momentarily (while he was on holiday) and present the dossier (and further evidence) to the police.
And then everything settled back to normal - Bradley ran out of steam, Hilton got back behind his desk and the cabalists escaped.
It is now clear that the police are unlikely to take any action against Henshaw, Halsall or McElhinney (who are jointly and individually responsible) unless Bradley is prepared to take matters much further.
(There now follows a lengthy ediorial aside: I have always wondered why Councillor Paul Clark's statement which showed Henshaw literally trying to blackmail the city council, could not be sent straight to the police. They would then have to talk to everyone involved and decide whether Henshaw had committed a criminal offence by demanding money with menaces. Then the whole thing would be blown open. Just a thought, ed)All the signs are that Bradley has given up, is now backing Hilton's 'let's stay schtum', line and will keep his head down. For a quiet life.
So why won't Hilton hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?
Ever since he was appointed, Hilton has told councillors that he wants to draw a line under the mis-rule of Henshaw's evil cabal.
"That was then, this is now," is how his public position can best be described.
Some observers may wonder then, why Hilton could justify continuing to pursue suspended media chief, Matt Finnegan who had been framed by the cabalists for supporting the Leader?
(Good question, ed
)There are some other interesting explanations for Hilton's failure to act:
1) Loyalty to Henshaw who appointed him as Director of Education in the first place.
2) Loyalty to the cabalists who he had worked with for five years.
3) He went to the same school as Chas Cole and Halsall.
4) He did not want his first few years as chief executive to be dominated by the Henshaw mess, when Liverpool needed work.
5) He had no affection for Storey and was glad to see him go as Leader.
6) He had no affection for Finnegan and was glad to see him go.
7) He wanted Bradley to know who was boss, so there would be no question of another public battle between Leader and chief executive.
8) Taking action would only damage Liverpool and the Lib Dem administration.
9) McElhinney and Halsall both had some serious personal dirt on Hilton, which they threatened to throw at him.
10) Hilton is a boring technocrat who will do anything to avoid rocking the boat.
11) Hilton is a fully-paid up member of the officer class, with little commitment to old-fashioned notions such as democracy or justice and little respect for, or understanding of, politics and politicians. Sweeping everything under the carpet is his natural inclination.
No doubt readers will be able to offer up some of their own alternative explanations. The truth is probably that Colin has covered up for all of the above reasons.
What is not in doubt any longer is that there was serious mis-handling by the evil cabal of millions of pounds in public money, which Liverpool could ill afford to lose.
And no-one has been held accountable for that by Hilton, as guardian of the public pur
se, or by anyone else. The cabal have escaped scot-free. And in a democracy, that is not good government.
CONCLUSION:
- Hilton's failure to take action against any individuals, in particular McElhinney and Halsall, shows other council officials that they can get away with anything they like. (In fact, both McElhinney and Halsall have been rewarded for the mis-use and loss of public money). The system can therefore be abused by senior officers with impunity. What future confidence can the people of Liverpool therefore now have in Hilton's integrity, or the city council's?
- Public administration within the city has been brought into further disrepute. Everyone knows there has been a cover-up and that the cabal perpetrated disgraceful abuses of their power and positions which cost Liverpool millions. No action has been taken as a result. (The Harbarrowboy incident when he acted as a lobbyist for Cole demonstrated Hilton's complete lack of interest in rooting out corruption).
- Politicians like Bradley, who despises the cabal, have been seriously undermined. Bradley can hardly start critiscising quangos in the city, when he can't even put his own house in order.
- The city council can only exist with the goodwill and support of the people of Liverpool. Even though less than a third of us vote for councillors, there is a tacit acceptance of the city council as both a civic and legal entity. However, Hilton now appears to have condoned illegality and to have turned a blind eye to the abuse of trust which went on. Ironically, his failure has given e
ven further credibility to the campaign for an elected mayor.
- Any moral authority which the city council possessed has been destroyed. Why should someone who has not paid their council tax, submit to a demand from Halsall's department, when his mate, McElhinney has robbed the people of Liverpool of millions of pounds? And when Halsall has connived with, conspired with and condoned all that went on?
- Why should anyone pay their parking fine to Liverpool Direct Limited, when its boss McElhinney continues to waste huge amounts of public money to feather his own nest?
- The org
anisation of the city of Liverpool is now effectively morally bankrupt.
Ultimately this whole sorry saga can only bring greater cynicism about public life, public service, politics and politicians.
"They are all in it for themselves," people will shake their heads and say.
And who now will ever be able to contradict that view?
Certainly not Colin Hilton.
And perhaps that corrosive spread of cynicism is the biggest crime of all.
THE ROTTWEILLER McElhinney is trying to force Liverpool Direct staff to do whatever he wants.
The move to scrap the clause follows the blog's recent exposure that Liverpool Direct was handling calls about Bernard Matthews's bird flu crisis for DEFRA.
This is explosive stuff, what an absolute scandal! Good grief, they are robbing us blind. Wonderful investigative journalism Tony, this is incendiary, shocking, systemic corruption, worse than Donnygate.
Is that Lonnie Donnygate?
Hey, Madonna is a blonde. You don't think....no couldn't be, but then isn't that religion she follows with the string round your wrist called cabal? perhaps we could call her as a material girl witness and have her do a turn for free at the summer pops.
No that definitly wasn't Madonna who used to hang out in Dr Duncans with the good Doctor..that was another blondie, the one known affectionatly by senior council staff as TAPS ( thick as pig s***)
This is dynamite stuff, well done TP.
Dont let the doc go off radar though! Dustman, difficult to identify which blonde you mean as they are all TAPS!
everyone must now bombard Hilton and co with pressure to suspend/dismiss Dr Dave, Creepy Phil and now the honorary member of the cabal, dodgy harrowboy
Meeting right facing the town hall?! Have these people no shame or fear of being found out? Probably not.
But they didnt count on the many eyes and ears of the TP army!
TP quick question, pressure brought to bear may result in PH & JB being suspended etc.
What can be done about Dr Deadly?
No longer a council employee, what sanctions can colin and co bring to bear? Pressure on BT to remove him as CEO of LDL? Surely there must be some severe (hopefully!) retribution.
Tone,
At the risk of repeating myself, maybe the more proactive amongst your readers could submit requests to the Council under the Freedom of Information Act, which gives them the right to see any papers relating to this matter which Mr Hilton, "Dirty Gerry" Callaghan or anyone else might have in their possession and again, correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the City Council have a statutory obligation to provide that information within certain prescribed timescales?
Yes absolutely right. Hilton has so far ignored FOI questions I sent him about four months ago. They are supposed to respond in 20 days. I asked for all the documents. However, no harm in others asking for the same documents. Especially councillors. More difficult to ignore. As for the evil McElhinney...it's difficult now that he is no longer an employee of the city council (This also needs exposing, ed) but letters to the boss of BT would put ptressure there. And finally, HM constabulary could ask to see the documents Mr Hilton has too. Would take a brave Chief Constable to push open the door here. But I think he might actually have it in him...
I may be wrong but I think Dr D IS EMPLOYED by Liverpool City Council.
LDL is a joint venture between Liverpool City Council and BT. However all the employees are seconded from either the council or BT. BT secondees are paid by BT, City Council secondess are paid by the City Council. LDL doesn't have any paid employees.
I'm fairly certain that Dr D is still employed by the city council...............
And further to the above Dr D DEFFO isn't on BT's books
I think I may have unwittingly stumbled across one of the great and astonishing scandals about this whole sorry affair. I don't believe MCElhinney IS a city council employee. I think he arranged his parachute out of the city council years ago when he negotiated the LDL deal with BT and became chief exec. I think he was not seconded, but his employment was transferred or taken over by LDL, a completely separate entity. I know LDL employees have been seconded from the city, but I don't think he has. I think he is employed by LDL - not the city directly. Clever eh? It means he is out of range of the council's disciplinary procedures. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT.
I may be wrong about this, which is why I have said I only THINK this is the case. If so, apologies all round. But I THINK I am right.
We can soon get it cleared up by councillors asking some pertinent questions, can't we? Who wants to go first?
Paul Clark should ask first - he's a barrister.
further to the above and the above LDL don;t have a payroll....................
All this talk of LDL makes me wonder - whatever happened to the Audit report that I believe Henshaw received (and quickly buried!) before he left office? It may have said that whilst there is some benefit to the City from Liverpool Direct Ltd's existence (nothing like as much benefit that the Thug or his girly army get!), its bloody expensive!
It might also have said that its peculiar that LCC being one of two partners in this 'enterprise' don't seem to make anything from it but instead pay extortionate rates for basis services.
It may have said other things too - it might have noticed how or from where DMcE gets his loot!
Perhaps someone could request a copy (under FOI?), or dare I suggest, ask for publication of this report?
Excuse me but I'm obviously missing something - since when did concert promotion lose money? I've never been aware of promoters being a benevolent lot that do it for the love of it - from what I've seen, apart from the odd mistake, they make a packet (and Cole doesn't look any different from the rest of them). If he is that bad at it then why in god's name is he our chosen partner??
Its surely worth the fraud squad taking a look at the books on this. It wouldn't surprise me if the 'loss' has been fabricated in some or many ways - and if it is, you can bet your shirt that some of it is ending up with the cabal. Like you've said TP, follow the money!
We are continually being told that Hilton is one of the good guys - now is his chance to prove it. If this story had appeared in this morning's Daily Post, he would have summoned Harborow to his office and suspended him immediately, pending an investigation. Suspension is a neutral act to allow a proper investigation. The fact that it is on the blog is neither here nor there. There is too much detail for this to be wrong. Since the blog seems to have been right about 99 per cent of the things it has reported, (Cream's free offer being the latest) it should give even more impetus to Hilton to take action. This cannot go on for ever. Come on Warren - give a lead and demand action!
It would be utterly astonishing if McElhinney is not employed by the city council.
Surely all of this leads back to the former chief executive's door, doesn't it?
I bloody hope so
Public Interest Disclosure Act Anyone?
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980023.htm
Council Accounts Rights Anyone?
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/Products/NATIONAL-REPORT/53EEC57C-D29F-44a9-BA46-210AD5959A0C/Councils-accounts%202006_FINAL.pdf
holden caulfield said.......
can anybody tell us who has their fingers in "smooth moves ltd" seems to be a lot of council staff playing musical chairs every other month !!!!!!
2 Million for Madge- no way
Have the cabals 10.000 relations/friends to fill the stadium for one night?
That is if they are still in power.
surely somone from HR&P can asnswer the Dr Dave works for.....question?!!!
LDL has taken on a lot of extra Council services since the contract was first signed, often charging significantly more for these services than the Council paid pre LDL- but according to LDL THEY ARE NOT MAKING ANY PROFIT FROM THESE NEW ADDITIONS?
ps..Watch out for flying pigs
Hey Tone
I wonder what Richie Lewis is doing these days? I do hope he doesn't decide to put his two-penneth in (anonymously of course).
If a union asked whether it could approach staff members of LDL for a recognition ballot then I believe that the Council would have to let them know whether there are any such workers to recognise the union. That would show whether anyone IS employed by LDL. I suggest Unison (cos of Local Govt) and CWU (cos they are the main BT employee union).
To find out whether he is employed by the council, an FOI request asking how much remuneration the position of Chief Exec of LDL is paid (not the person who holds the role - important distinction) should reveal whether it is the Council who pays it (if they do then they cannot refuse as it does not fall foul of the DPA). But, to ensure you get an answer, you can ask if the Council pays for this position.
Does anyone else find it interesting that when he was appointed Chief Executive for the waterfront arena, Bob Prattey also predicted that Madonna would want to perform there. (press release 27.4.05). I believe that Bob came highly recommended for the job! So ask yourself, who did he know?
HR&P here..........
You can bet your bottom dollar he has a Liver Bird on his payslip!
Re the above - Of course he doesn;t get a paper payslip, he stopped those to save money being washed down the drain - unlike the water from his private shower!
Aah - naughty HR &P persons. You will be sacked tomorrow by the big boss - or even the little boss who thinks she is the big boss!
I'm really scared now - HR&P rebel
Nice one, HR&P rebel!
We need so many more like you!
By the way, what's the name of this 'little boss'?
Whilst your,re at it why not look at Housing Associations and their gifted Council Houses Believe some council employees were also given jobs by them.
Like Pigs in the trough.
God Help the CSA. and the council tax payer.
Sentinal
Excellent site Tony
How come it has took so long for this to come online?
Until a few months ago I used to work for a partner company of LCC and saw first hand the complete disorganisation of LCC.
I worked on the 08 Place and your relevations come as no surprise to me.
May I suggest you start asking questions about the councils proposed 50 metre pool project at Picton, and who gave the go ahead for Gleesons to start work without realising that the council never owned the land. This has so far cost the tax payer of Liverpool in excess of 200K in preliminaries and there isn't even a hole in the ground.
As for me, I had enough of handing over my hard earned to the baffoons in the council to squander so I have recently took a job in a country that was thought as corrupt, but no where near as corrupt as what I left behind.
Keep up the excellent work mate
Dear Blog Site
Thanks for opening up a debate the majority of my council collleagues were too fearful to open up - bless the little dears
The huge question must be why was Henshaw paid off rather than sacked?
In any private company if the MD was deliberately working against the policy of the board or seeking to release persoanl e mails of hcair of borad with staff then no doubt dismissal would entail
May we remind bloggers that only The Liberal Party opposition group had the guts to table for a formal investigation on this count : Copy of Daily Post press report as follows
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A MOVE that could determine whether two of Liverpool City Council's most senior officers will face disciplinary action is earmarked for approval at tonight's meeting of the council.
Crucial support from members of the ruling Liberal Democrat group will be given when the minority Liberal Party seek approval for the setting up of a formal disciplinary committee to investigate the conduct of chief executive Sir David Henshaw and the council's resources director Phil Halsall.
The investigation, if backed by a majority of the 90 councillors, will centre on the publication of e-mails written between council leader Mike Storey and the currently suspended media chief Matt Finnegan. It will determine whether the actions of the two officers constitute a serious breach of trust between senior politicians and officers.
The e-mails were published in a dossier by Mr Halsall as part of a report claiming there was a move to see Sir David moved from office
Cllr Hazel Williams of the Liberal group, will be introducing the topic for debate, backed by fellow-Liberal, Cllr Chris Lenton. Their leader, Cllr Steve Radford, also supports the proposal, but he is on holiday and will not be at the meeting.
The Liberals will be urging the council to establish a formal disciplinary committee to investigate primarily the conduct of both Sir David and Mr Halsall.
They express alarm that the council's Internal Audit Section may have acted contrary to the Data Protection Act as well as copyright regulations and council e-mail protocols.
The Liberal councillors say the e-mails were read and copied, even though permission had not been given for their dissemination and publication.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I still contest that the opening of the emails between press officer and Leader of Council at the time during an investigation for a totally different issues constituted trawling and therefore illegal. The fact the e mails read more like lovers letters than a professional relationship between the Leader of the Council and its Press Manager is another matter of concern, but these should not have been circulated to all councillors
Cllr Steve Radford
Liberal Party Group - will will be contributing more
How noble and public spirited of Steve Radford to enter the debate like a knight in shining armour. Maybe he would like to comment on his own unnatural relationship (in the political sense, obviously) with PJ Doherty and his chums at the Liverpool Motor Auction site or as seems more likely, is he going to continue spouting like the hypocritical tw*t that everyone knows him to be?
Watch out Steve, you might get run over by a bandwagon one of these days as you desparately try to clamber on board to make personal capital out of someonre else's originality and hard work.
Cheery pip
Now,I am no fan of Mr Radford or any other of the elected members, but at least he had the bottle to put his name on the post unlike other councillors who are posting anon, I understand.
And it is very much in Dr Dave's interest for the attention to be diverted away by attacking others, in fact it is his main strategy!
so lets not have a go at Mr R and co on other matters, now that this blog exisits I would suggest this is the first of many, so watch out councillors we now have a way to name and shame, beware.
But for now, lets concentrate on the evil within (and wherever The Dark Lord is!)
Well done rebel HR&P, dont stop now, you are vital source of info to this campaign.
Come on everyone keep on the pressure!
We are just going to offer a warning shot today: If anyone attempts to use this blog to make political capital out of it, they will not succeed. And hopefully they will be treated with the contempt they deserve by the voters. This is too important for party politics. It is about democracy and the future of our city. Our aim has been all along to expose those paid employees of the city (public servants for God's sake, ed!) who have served their own interests rather than Liverpool's. We know who they are - and so do you. We are not having this campaign hijacked by anyone. If politicians want to promote themselves or their own parties - GO AND START YOUR OWN BLOG! (And we'll see how many hits they get, ed) In the meantime we would ask politicians of all parties to continue to press for action, in any way they can, against the evil cabal. Their contributions, help and support are very welcome. Here endeth the lesson.
jail'em - you never heard of the little HR&P boss Colette Hannay? Loves to think of herself as Natasha Kaplinski look alike (maybe 30 years ago - perhaps it's the effect of working with the lovely Dr D).
Keep up the good work HR&P rebel. You've got loads of stories to tell - be brave!
Cabal spotting: Harbarrowboy going into Millennium House today. Obviously not suspended!
'Red til I die' is right - whatever your views on Cllr Radford, he has offered to take up these questions and should be warmly encouraged to do so. Cllrs have better access to info than we do. The Liberals are just a small group but have arguably made more impact in the last year than the Labour opposition, with ten times fewer resources. Who cares if they are motivated by party politics - that's the incentive built into our gladitorial system - sadly, most of the gladiators have been gelded by the tin-pot ceasars of the cabal. Hail Radford!
Is it possible that what is going on in our little city will be repeated in the cities lined up to have their own versions of 'Liverpool Vision' in the coming future, as readers may or may not know one of the functions of 'Vision' is to determine where European funding is to be allocated, often to projects that have benefitted their associates, which in many cases purchased property at knock down prices, knowing that funding and huge rises in value of the property would be guaranteed once the culture bid was won, this was almost inevitable, the experiment that is 'Vision' is one that has pulled the wool over the eyes of scousers (or so they think) I believe that if this is allowed to go on without government investigation we will see the same faces benefiting in the next round of planned redevelopment funding for the other proposed cities around Britain, I can't remeber the 'city list' that was printed in the press a few years ago, perhaps someone can dig the list out, I'm almost sure Bradford was one on the list, it would make sense as Robbie Fowler owns over 100 houses there!!!! Perhaps Robbie has insider knowledge?
What?
This is what the city council had to say (almost a week later):
"Briefings were held for journalists from the Daily Post and Liverpool Echo to explain the details of a report on the 2005 Summer Pops being considered by the Culture and Leisure Select Committee.
"At the briefings, the current promoter answered questions from journalists about his future plans for the Summer Pops, should he be successful in winning the tender to promote the event. The chief executive of the Culture Company (Jason Harborow) took no part in those discussions.
"The contract for promoting the Summer Pops for 2007 and 2008 will be awarded by elected members and not officers. A sub-committee of members is to be set up to oversee the tendering process.
"A brief proposal was submitted by Cream, but it was received too late to allow a full appraisal and evaluation of this new proposal to be carried out. "
Interesting. Hilton first said that the Cream proposal came AFTER councillors had taken the decision to stick with CMP. Now that line appears to have changed to 'it came too late.' Which is it Colin?