Games some councillors play

Posted on 12 September 2011 - 04:20am

R. Nadeswaran

THE first meeting with Richard Orange was at the Centre of Investigative Journalism in London three years ago where about 50 of us were attending a dour lecture on local council funds.
It may have interested locals as the laws provided them the right to inspect accounts and demand explanations even from the guys who approved the accounts – the auditors.
But sitting with him over a beer in the evenings, sharing the Malaysian experience of extravagance, what he spoke about makes our councillors appear as neophytes compared to the antics and frolics of some members of British local councils.
Orange is no ordinary Joe. He provides expert advice on the operation of national audit regulations governing access to public accounts and has already taken one local authority to the High Court over its failure to release financial data to taxpayers, and recently unearthed a corrupt land deal which led to the imprisonment of an East Midlands council leader.
He gave several leads on extravagance following the decision by the central government to slash its funding to local governments.
Councils, in turn were forced to cut their budgets and some even threatened to close down public amenities like libraries and recreational facilities and also charge for entry to parks and museums.
But given access to information, the excesses of some councils and their members began to make people wonder if they had elected the right people to run their councils.
Because of easy access to information, the public discovered that Brian Coleman, the Tory councillor for Barnet used almost £3,500 (RM16,714) of taxpayers' money last year for journeys that included ferrying his mother to events in taxis.
He claimed the expenses as chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Of the eight members on the authority, only two others claimed any expenses whatsoever and the second highest claim was almost 10 times less than Coleman's.
In 2008, Coleman, who is said to earn almost £120,000 a year, was criticised for running up a taxi bill of £8,231 as an assembly member, including a £656 bill on one day. He was nicknamed "grab-a-cab Coleman" by his colleagues who use public transport or bicycles.
His latest expenses reveal he claimed nearly £700 on congestion charge fees last year. At the same time he was spending hundreds of pounds of taxpayers' money on taxis, some with his mother Gladys, 88, who often accompanied him to formal events.
Not to be outdone was the Tory-run Cotswold District Council near Oxford. It spent £19,000 on a magician to "motivate" workers. This led to accusations that the Tories are entertaining themselves by making "taxpayers money disappear with the aid of a magic man".
Because much of such expenditure is considered legitimate – approved by the councillors – and in "the course of carrying out duties", there's nothing much anyone can do expect moan and groan until the next local elections when they can be thrown out. But we Malaysians do not have this option.
The actions of some councils have not gone unnoticed, though. The communities and local government secretary, Eric Pickles, attacked councils for creating "non-jobs" such as "cheerleading development officers".
Saying that is unclear and how useful certain council jobs are, citing the examples of "audience development officers" and "communications waste strategy officers".
In Malaysia, we had councillors from the Selayang Municipal Council inspecting toilets in Mauritius and South Africa; the Klang Municipal Council spending RM80,000 on ceremonial dresses; the Ipoh City Council on a lawatan sambil belajar to Taiwan and Hongkong and the Petaling Jaya City Council using the billboard licences to collect millions purportedly for its football team.
Various other councils have entered into dubious agreements and these have only been made public with persistent media investigations. But yet, the issue of being transparent has never been the practice because such expenditure is classified as "sulit".
The truth of the matter is that, given someone else's money to spend, no one is as prudent as when spending their own cash. And it's not a phenomenon unique to one organisation, council, state or nation. It's a universal issue which can only be solved by making people accountable for public money.
If only we could enact laws to allow the Ordinary Joe to inspect the accounts of our government departments, the auditor-general's task will become easier.
R. Nadeswaran has inspected his council's accounts and accompanied local journalists in seeking details of other councils' expenditure. He is theSun's UK correspondent and can be reached at: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com