Jeff Dickie: Edinburgh tough, Dunedin (DUD)

Further to the contents of an email from Jeff Dickie last month, who was writing from a hotel on Orchard Road at the time:

Supplied. ODT 13.7.15 (page 6)

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INVOICE FRAUD AND MORE

TWO corrupt council officials and two businessmen who supplied them with cash and hospitality have been jailed with a warning they face “significant” sentences.

### HeraldScotland.com Wednesday 17 June 2015
Corrupt Edinburgh council officials face lengthy jail term
[…] Former local authority employees Charles Owenson and James Costello were treated to dances and drinks in lap dancing bars as valuable Edinburgh City Council contracts were secured through bribery. Ex-directors of Action Building Contracts Ltd (ABC Ltd) Kevin Balmer and Brendan Cantwell provided the rewards over the allocation of work for public buildings including schools, care homes and cemeteries.
Following their earlier guilty pleas a sheriff told them that he would continue their case until tomorrow for sentencing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to consider the information he had been given. But Sheriff Michael O’Grady QC told the four men: “Having regard to the gravity of the offences, it is clear to me the sentences will require to be custodial and require to be significant.” He remanded all of them in jail ahead of sentencing.
Owenson and Costello were provided with hospitality, including corporate seats at Hibs and Hearts football grounds and meals out as well as cash, by Edinburgh-based construction firm ABC Ltd (Action Building Contracts). The contractors even submitted inflated invoices to the local authority for work carried out to cover the costs of the bribes they were paying council officials. Fiscal Keith O’Mahony earlier told the court: “In essence, the council was being charged for the cost of bribing its own officials.”
[…] Police began carrying out enquiries in 2010 as a result of complaints about the statutory notices system and were later informed that senior management had received “a whistleblower letter” alleging that Owenson was showing favouritism when allocating work to contractors. The Crown has raised proceedings to recover crime profits in the case.
Read more

█ 18.6.15 BBC News: Four jailed over Edinburgh City Council bribes

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Shades of the ‘Screaming Orgasm cocktails’ saga following Dunedin City Council’s decision to build the stadium. That evening, the board members of Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust went out to celebrate, booking their drinks at Alibi Bar & Restaurant to the Ratepayers.
Of course, there have been masses of local big-ticket ‘corruptions’: the stadium land purchases (including for realignment of SH88); the Carisbrook ‘deal’ with Otago Rugby Football Union, and further ‘Otago Rugby’ deals with Dunedin Venues (DVML); the Delta subdivisions and service contracts (Jacks Point and Luggate, and more recently Noble Village); the unravelling Citifleet fraud and insurance scam (substantially greater than 152 fleet vehicles lost off the inventory, allied to ‘traffic’ in car parts, tyres, service contracts, and fluid cash); the Dunedin Town Hall Redevelopment Project (via City Property) yet to be fully detailed; and field lights for Otago Cricket Association…….. et al.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cr Vandervis (LGOIMA) on $2 million “interest underspend”

RAINS ON CR RICHARD THOMSON’S PARADE . . . .
—HIS “TIMELY” INTERNATIONAL CRICKET LIGHTS MOTION

Received from Lee Vandervis
‎Sun‎, ‎31‎ ‎May‎ ‎2015 ‎at 9‎:‎56‎ ‎p.m.

From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Sun, 24 May 2015 08:44:52 +1200
To: Sue Bidrose [CEO, DCC], Grant McKenzie [GCFO, DCC]
Conversation: Timing of announcement of budgeted $2m not spent – LGOIMA info request
Subject: Timing of announcement of budgeted $2m not spent – LGOIMA info request

Dear Sue and Grant,

The timing of our CFO’s announcement of the budgeted $2m not spent half way through our last week’s LTP discussions was independently questioned by myself, Cr. Calvert, and DCC watchdog Calvin Oaten.
This overbudget was characterised by Cr. Thomson as an “underspend” and by Cr. Bezett as “a fortuitous fund to dip into”, and was promptly dipped into to fund Cr. Thomson’s moved $1million for International Cricket lights.

I asked CFO McKenzie in the following break why he had chosen that time immediately prior to Cr. Thomson’s International Cricket light’s motion to make the $2 million announcement and he replied “Because I was asked to”, which raises the further questions:

1 – Who it was that asked our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?
2 – When did that person ask our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?
3 – Whose decision was it to make the announcement at that particular time during our funding decision discussions?

Kind regards,
Cr. Vandervis

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From: Cindy Ashley [DCC]
Date: Thu, 28 May 2015 04:13:12 +0000
To: Lee Vandervis
Cc: Grace Ockwell [DCC]
Subject: Timing of Announcement at LTP of $2 million Unspent

Dear Councillor Vandervis,

I refer to your email of 24 May 2015 sent to both the CEO, Dr Bidrose and Group Chief Financial Officer, Grant McKenzie.

Your request has been considered under the provisions of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) and the following response is provided.

I have repeated and numbered your questions to give context to our response.

1 – Who it was that asked our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?

Finance staff were asked by the Chair of the Finance Committee to get an update on the current year’s underspend. Earlier estimates of the level of interest underspend had been supplied to all Councillors on a number of occasions previously. Most recently prior to the Long Term Plan (LTP) this information was provided through the monthly finance reports that went to the Finance Committee on the 4th of May (page 4.6) where the underspend on interest expense for the nine month period to March was $1.606 million. In addition, the underspend was also referred to in two reports that were provided to Council as part of the LTP process, specifically in report 9 – paragraph 12, and in report 22- paragraph 10.

An update was requested at the LTP process as another month had passed since the March update figures had been prepared, and the Chair of Finance wanted to know if the April result could be made available.

2 – When did that person ask our CFO to make that $2 million announcement?

Because the Chair of Finance had asked if the updated result was available and it was, the Mayor asked the update be provided as part of the deliberations for that day so that all the Councillors had the updated information. Mr McKenzie then wrote an additional memorandum explaining the underspend in the current financial year, following a request from Councillor Calvert to Dr Bidrose for this information.

3 – Whose decision was it to make the announcement at that particular time during our funding decision discussions?

As Chair of the meeting, the Mayor asked that the information be provided, as it was available, in order to ensure that all Councillors had access to the latest updated figures of interest underspend, as had been provided in the earlier reports referred to in our response to question 2.

If you have any questions or require further information please contact Mr McKenzie.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Ockwell
Governance Support Officer
Dunedin City Council

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr