Friday, March 26, 2010

Strathclyde Police and Audit Scotland refuse to investigate Glasgow City Council, why I am not surprised?
















Dear All

The Glasgow Labour Party scandal involving Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell has all the hallmarks of a good mystery.

Drugs, gangsters, blackmail, cronyism and public money running into millions of pounds finding its way to Labour Party donors, the stuff of high drama.

In a corrupt Scotland, it therefore must come as no surprise that that both the Police and Scotland’s public spending watchdog, Audit Scotland won’t act.

Audit Scotland has publicly said there was an “absence of any evidence” to launch an investigation.

Presumably thousands of pounds of taxpayer’s money being funnelled to the Labour Party by Labour Party members from Labour controlled NGOs doesn’t count.

City Building alone has put in the region of £50,000 plus into the coffers of the Labour Party.

And that isn’t worthy of investigation?

The Police have also taken a similiar ‘can’t do’ attitude for the probe into whether allegations that individuals and organisations improperly benefited from contracts awarded by council construction firm City Building should go ahead.

The call for investigations came from Glasgow East SNP MP John Mason as the tip of the rotten Labour Council of shame broke the surface starting down at the SPT, the Glasgow Labour Party’s cash cow and travel agent.

Audit Scotland said it was satisfied with the work recently completed on the city council by external auditors.

This is the same excuse used at Westminster by the guilty; everything was approved by the Fees Office.

Now, following a Police investigation several MPs have been charged with fraud.

Deputy Auditor General, Caroline Gardner, said;

“Glasgow City Council is responsible for managing its affairs and it is best placed to make decisions about the action required in the current situation”.

Isn’t this the defence used by Devine, Morley and Chaytor that they shouldn't be investigated except by Parliament?

That didn’t wash with a Judge.

Gardner added;

“At this stage, however, in the absence of any evidence of poor governance or financial irregularity on specific decisions or transactions, we do not consider that additional audit work is currently necessary.”

What about the £50,000 in political donations to the Labour Party, doesn’t that count as poor governance and financial irregularity on specific decisions or transactions?
SNP MP John Mason said;

“Many constituents have approached me with their concerns about allegations being made about what was going on during Steven Purcell’s leadership. I’m of the view that if there’s nothing to hide within City Building then an external examination would clear that up and put the matter to rest.”

In an attempt to ward off John Mason, a letter signed by five senior trade union representatives accused John Mason of threatening the livelihoods of the 2,000 staff at City Building with his calls for a probe.

In other words stop asking questions about Labour Party members running Labour controlled City Building.

The refusal by Audit Scotland and Strathclyde Police to act demonstrates that the need of a full public inquiry into Glasgow City Council and its NGOs is required by the Scottish Government.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

3 comments:

brownlie said...

Surely the point of an investigation would be to find if there was any evidence of wrong-doing or not. When the police are notified of a suspected crime do they say "Ah, we don't have any evidence so we won't investigate"?

Anonymous said...

Where is the SCDEA in all this?

G Laird said...

Dear Brownlie and Bugger

If you want to know the time, ask a policeman.

If you want anything else then they have to ask the Labour Party.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University