Don't blame the whistleblower for council expenses investigation

7 October 2010

In a letter to the Mercury newspaper, Broxbourne Labour leader Councillor Michael Watson has backed an investigation into unlawful payments to councillors.

I was astounded to read in your article on the payment of potentially illegal payments to councillors that the leader of the council feels that my colleague Councillor Richard Greenhill (Labour, Waltham Cross) should be blamed for the costs of carrying out an investigation.

The Labour Group first raised the issue of these illegal payments in 2008. Since that time we have repeatedly called for the council to issue a full report into how they came to be paid, because we believe that since the law was changed to outlaw the payments councillors have received nearly £120,000 in payments that they should not have done.

We believe that every pound of taxpayers' money is sacrosanct, and that as a result we should carry out a full investigation into how so much money came to be wrongly paid to councillors.

For some reason known only to themselves the council has refused to issue a full report into the matter, despite the fact that it is legally obliged to have done so.

The council has had numerous chances to issue its own internal report into the problem. If it had done, the matter would not have gone this far.

Even in the past few days, my colleague has offered to withdraw his objection if such a report was issued, but it just seems beyond the council to investigate its own mistake.

It's worth remembering that Councillor Greenhill has already saved the taxpayer £30,000 by ensuring that the payments were stopped.

Councillor Mason and his colleagues are to blame for the fact that the external auditor has had to investigate this matter, and as a result are to blame for any cost to the taxpayer.

Councillor Michael Watson
Leader of the Opposition
Broxbourne Borough Council

Report filed 11/10/2010

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