Council Whistleblowers

In a post yesterday I expressed my surprise that South Lanarkshire Council had apparently dismissed a complaint - just because it was made anonymously.

See post dated January 21 2012 - 'Council Faces Probe'.

But as I was writing I remembered that the council has received anonymous complaints before - which were investigated at the time.

Not just that - senior Labour councillors were actively campaigning for tough action from the chief executive - calls which were supported by the trade unions as I recall.

One of the local Labour MPs - Tom McCabe, a former leader of South Lanarkshire Council - got in on the act atthe time and demanded that heads should roll.

What a difference - you have to admit - when serious allegations are made about the ruling Labour administration.

Where are the senior Labour councillors and Labour supporting trade unions now?

Nowhere to be seen - and instead the official line is 'no comment'.

So here's a previous post from 2010 to remind readers what this whole business was all about - yet again it led to a highly paid council official walking away with a big 'golden handshake' - courtesy of the public purse.


Council Wars (October 8th 2010)

A regular reader has kindly sent me a copy of the incendiary e-mails - that seem to have sparked a civil war in South Lanarkshire Council.

The first is from Councillor Hugh Dunsmuir - Chair of Corporate Resources - who received an anonymous complaint from people claiming to be disgruntled members of staff.

The councillor shares the e-mail with the council's chief executive - Archie Strang - which is how you would expect any responsible councillor to behave.

But Councillor Dunsmuir also copies his e-mail to the chief executive - along with the anonymous complaint - to all and sundry within the council - which was of course a very silly and potentially vindictive thing to do.

Especially as Councillor Dunsmuir says in his e-mail to Archie Strang - "...I would urge you as chief executive to investigate these matters and also let it be known that any member of staff can come to you and it will be treated confidentially."

So, while the councillor is keen to respect confidentiality in some circumstances - he seems quite prepared to share an anonymous complaint - by circulating the details far and wide to all council employees.

Sounds like plain old-fashioned party politicking - if you ask me.

Anyway the chief executive - Archie Strang - responds that same day to say Councillor Dunsmuir or anyone else is perfectly free to raise any issue of concern with him as Head of the Paid Service.

But he goes on to say that it was not appropriate for Councillor Dunsmuir to have copied the e-mail to staff - particularly as the complaint was anonymous and unsubstantiated.

Shortly afterwards all hell broke loose - as the Sunday Post reported last week - and ever since senior councillors and senior officials seem to have been at war with each other.

Let's see what the weekend brings - but if things go on like this - you would expect the Scottish Government to begin asking some serious questions about what's going on.