Questions of accountability

Published: 11th February, 2011

• A BOY is killed by an unsafe wall, a father is killed by hazardous electrics, and a child is sexually abused by a taxi diver working for the council’s transport contractors (Paedophile cab driver who took kids to school, February 3). 

All of these have one thing in common; not one person in the council has ever resigned or been sacked because of them.

Councillors depend on the professional advice of officers when making decisions on behalf of Camden residents. 

The presumption is that those working at the coalface are better informed than they who don’t.

Yet, Transport for London officers had long been concerned that Criminal Records Bureau checks on mini-cab drivers might miss out on overseas convictions but Camden transport officers chose not highlight it for councillors in 2007, when presenting them with a report on the contract award strategy for taxi services.

Apart from sending the council’s safeguarding policy to the taxi company that subsequently won the arising contract, council officers did very little to ensure it had been taken on by its contractor. 

So the council has been found guilty of maladministration, a child has been sexually abused and yet not one person in the council has been sacked or been asked to resign. Why?

KEITH SEDGWICK
Gospel Oak