ON JANUARY 22, a special Lambeth council meeting discussed the Chief Executive's report into £10 milion of alleged corruption.
His report highlights: unauthorised redundancies, overcharging by the (DLO), and overcharging by sub-contractors who had often won work im. property. Three senior officers have suffered intimidation as a result of Officer solutions to this mess are to break up the DLO and te-tonder in-house* services. The meeting was lobbied by Lambeth workers whose jobs are threatened.
Press reports fail to mention that it was wilch hunted councors who called the special council meeting to stop the il egal redundancies by remoning work trom suo contacie This followed the privatisafon of halt of the housing DLO. DLO workers clearly had jobs Io oo cul cound leader, Steve Whaley, wanted to get 10 or people n0 caloros The same legal officers who toreed cound ors io make the redunJanuary 30, 1993 No. 36 sancies are now saying that this was Segal! The left's attempts to stop the radundances wore inter expel them from the Labour Party!
Steve Whaley had brousht in consultants KPMG to supervise the compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) of the repairs section - originaly for a 06,000 fee. KPMG had earlier been used by the Tories to try to impose a Housing Action Trust in Lambeth. They are now helping Walesa to privatise Poland!
Extended contracts
The Chief Executive's report criticises massive extensions of conha e conoscere won should have been retendered. tended to over €250,000!
John Smith's man Jack Straw MP neis wieo to blame le wine counciors for this scandal. However, Labour Party General Secretary, Larry Whitty admitted, when expeling Lambeth councillor Steve French, that he corruption as chair of the DLO in French removed dozens of overcharging sub-contractors from the counci's approved list and sacked nearly the entre DLO top manageinifative has been lost. CCT has offered new opportunites for corruption Cilr. French banned have been reinstated.
At the meeting, expelled Labour councillars narrowly lost a resolution their motion condemning the ban on councillors seing financial reports was passed.
Senior officers propose more redundancies to cover up ther laiings. Even Chief Execuive Herman Ouseley sar "Falures are due. in some way, to the failings of. management, induding mysti. Top The council leadership unquesboningly accepted the recommenda move towards the dosure of the DLO ts the ordinary worker wot gets the Come Privatisation is the harbinger of corruption, not the soluton! precedent should be publicised and brandished in the face of every Labour right-winger in county, to underline the fact that even within the tortured logicof the witch hunters, membership of a 'proscribed' organisation is not an expellable offence.
Mark Thompson, who became the first ever Labour counamor tor te seven Datis ward in 1988 commented:
"Although our stand in op posing poll tax and cuts in coundil jobs and services has been justified, the witch hunt has alon Brighton bour Party St on Brighton Labour Party. was almost wiped out in last year's council élections, showing that witch hunts are purely and simply a gift to the Tories.
The Brighton hearings are a Where was Militant?
The two blows struck in Brighton against the witchhunt by Rod Fitch and Mark Thompson have sadly thrown into snare rener now local willan supporters have chosen to (not) fight the witch hunt.
The bureaucracy's task in easier when about a third of those accused of Militant membership failed to renew their Labour Party
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