Alistar Frater

Elected officials cover-up of “Rosendale’s Fraudsters”

By The Basa ⋅ March 9, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The following emails are now among hundreds that have been received from members of Children & Families staff and shows the current feeling of Community Education workers throughout the city who are either extremely pissed off or sh1t scared.  We were also informed by a highly placed source within the Council that the whistleblower was offered Twelve Thousand Pounds to drop his case against the council.  Dr. Fitton was offered Five Thousand Pounds and her appearance -v- City of Edinburgh Council is in April as she, as well as the whistleblower, both turned down the Council’s attempted bribe to allow the news of the fraud to go undetected and Rosendale to continue his occupation of fraud within the City of Edinburgh Council.

What is unbeleivable is the stance now being taken by the council.  As the case involves the Lord Provost and Ewan Aitken it has been decided that the Whistleblower should at all cost be discredited.  A smearing campaign has already started within Children and Families organised by Mr Rosendale and his management team.  Staff have been informed that a political and corporate decision has been reached to show the Whistleblower the door.  This has appalled the majority of staff who are hardworking and are dismayed that the council are willing to harrass this employee out the door.   He should be applauded for his courage.  It is apparent for all to see and is indeed now widely accepted by staff in other council department that we have corrupt officers in the Chidlren and Families Department who will stop at nothing to hide their malpractice.

and

You have hit a raw nerve in the department. Instructions from Rosendale is that no one is to access you site and no one is allowed to discuss the press on the whistleblower or mention his name. Individuals throughout Children and Families are still smearing the whistleblower and Dr. Fitton on orders from on high .Well done on exposing their dirty tricks. Staff have decided they will out them if they continue in their campaign.

and

The Legal Department are still intending to defend their position in relation to Dr Fitton. Cllr Aitken and Cllr Hinds are abusing their position to ensure the allegation of fraud is kept to a minimum.  Cllr Aitken was well aware in 2002 (as Cllr responsible for Education) of the allegations made by the whistleblower but continued to support Rosendale in the cover-up and then let Rosendale transfer finances from Children and Families in 2004 to try to hide the fraud.  He sat on the board and discussed these issues and unbelievablely decided not to call Lothain and Borders Police into ELLP.  The investigation should cover why these councillors allowed two innocent employees to be treated so badly and now have a Legal Department misusing public money to protect their reputations. How much of the public purse is still being used to cover their tracks. Why are these two Cllr not suspended from public office. Our department is being manipulated by political forces

and

This attempt to smear John Travers was in retaliation to your articles in Edinburgh Sucks . The Department are furious at your coverage as is Cllr Aitken has also joined in the smearing by stating the judgement was a mistake.  Perharps The Cllr should be reminded there are copies of papers the ELLP Board were given which includes himself from external auditors demonstrating serious malpractice. Of course other board members from other agencies are now desperate not to be assoicated with the fraud and have confirmed that Cllr. Atiken was given a paper with the rest of the board called Agenda B naming the individuals concerned.  Mr Rosendale as company secretary, as noted in Whitelaw Wells audited accounts also met in early December 2003 to discuss concerns with auditors but according to staff in Headquaters he told his senior management team he was sacking the whistleblower for raising inaccurate concerns over ELLP.  What a FIBBER!

The Council have now taken over the running of the myEdinburgh website.  Rosendale has covered his back by hiring back one of the CityConnect crew as Webmaster, namely Alistar Frater the Microsoft FrontPage Wizard.

Someone has to now put in a FOI request to find out just how much of our money are our elected representatives and thier senior departmental officials are spending on smearing a whistleblower which is against the law. 

The Facts:

• There is no doubt that almost £400,000 of our money was wasted by the CityConnect crew because the auditors told us.
• There is no doubt that Rosendale was the Company Secretary of ELLP which had total control over CityConnect.
• There is no doubt that Lesley Hinds, our Lord Provost and Ewan Aitken the Executive Member for Children and Families were both on the Board of ELLP.
• There is no doubt that the Auditors wrote on two occasions to the Board of ELLP which obviously included Rosendale, Hinds and Aitken to point out the gaping hole
• There is no doubt that the Council spent a huge amount of money on a defence and finally lost the Industrial Tribunal and were fined £5,000 of our money.
• There is no doubt that the Council are spending another huge amount of money on a defence agaisnt Dr. Christine Fitton who also tried to alert senior officials of the fraud.

The question that seems to be coming to the fore of most people’s minds is why is a Minister of the Church of Scotland and the Elected Member for Children & Familes continuing the cover-up and why has he not handed this case and why is the most senior citizen in the City, The Lord Provost Lesley Hinds also continuing this cover-up.  Why when there is £400,000 of taxpayers money been spent without accounting procedures were these people not fired and in fact why were they actually given jobs in other departments.  If this happened in business there would be people in jail.  Surely the Lord Provost, The Executive Member for Children & Families and a Minister of the Church of Scotland be held to higher standards when they are representing the city and thier constituents money.

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Random Posts you may have missed

• July 3, 2006 -- How to find Rosendale
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• June 22, 2006 -- Council ignores experts…. again!

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