Story: Douglas Johnson
Shortly after our June 2008 issue went to press, the council published its audit report, which answered the questions posed in our February 2008 issue. The allegation was that New Deal awarded contracts to two men – Jack Davies and Bill Husband – found guilty of gross misconduct at another New Deal in London.
The report revealed:
Chief Executive John Clark did know that the two men had been suspended.
John Clark did not pass this information on to the Partnership Board.
The investigation couldn’t say exactly how much was paid for these contracts but it was at least £110,118, plus VAT.
New Deal did not follow agreed processes all the time.
With this report, the new Lib Dem leadership of the Council voted no confidence in the Chief Executive and called for him to resign, saying they would consider stopping payments to New Deal “until proper management is in place”.
Since then, New Deal has announced:
“We can confirm that the position of Chief Executive is currently included in redundancy negotiations, which will be finalised at the end of July 2008. The appointment of a Deputy Chief Executive was part of a planned exit strategy identified by John Clark a year ago.”