Edinburgh Sucks! | Donald Anderson - Tell the truth, PLEASE!

Alistar Frater

Donald Anderson - Tell the truth, PLEASE!

By The Basa ⋅ May 29, 2006 ⋅

Councillor Anderson, you REALLY must be joking!

“We will be seeking firm assurances from the head of the department involved that these problems have been properly dealt with.”

The head of the department, Mike Rosendale, has covered up the whole nightmare since August 1999 as you well know - he was intricately involved. He was the Company Secretary and Board Member of ELLP and he continues to hire Frater & Hillson. His boss Jonah Jobson was also fully informed over the three years of the fraud as was the Executive Member for Children & Families, Councillor Rev. Ewan Aitken and the rest of the Board including Lord Provost Hinds and former Lord Provost Milligan.

The city, your own Labour group councillors and the good workers of the Children & Families Department are seeking assurances that Jobson, Rosendale, Hillson and Frater all go and the relevant papers are passed to Lothian & Borders Police. Other law enforcement agencies already have them as part of another investigation.

The report, linked below, is a WHITEWASH of what actually happened at the time and it does not take into consideration the illegal activities that have been taking place up until this week as a direct result of the cover-up. The ELLP problem is NOT going away and will continue probably for a number of years.

Having now had over 100 emails from Children & Families staff members since Saturday - I can tell you, they are totally GUTTED! Below are some of the comments from the emails:

“Mike Rosendale obviously told Donald Anderson a pack of lies in 2002 as the newspaper has indicated the whistleblower was telling the truth according to the internal investigations. Mike Rosendale was asked to investigate the disclosures in 2002 by Donald Anderson. Mike Rosendale obviously didn’t iinvestigate it but tracked down the sender.”

“Did this internal investigation interview Dr Christine Fitton or the whistleblower? If the answer is yes well staff might have faith in the honesty of the report but if the answer is no well here we go again.”

“Will the internal report highlight the financial irregularities in ELLP or does it just account for the £65,000 the council gave it, because the fraud involves the £400,000 FROM EllP that Mr Rosendale was responsible for.”

“The staff are not filled with confidence when Cllr Anderson states he wants firm assurances from Roy Jobson. Well, what we want is the police called in and Rosendale and Hillson to be suspended.”

“Ewan Atiken seemed quite willing to forgive Rosendale and was even heard informing and briefing other Councillors that the tribunal had made a mistake. Well the staff have a mesage for Rev. Atiken You ara not fit to hold office.”

“We believe Hinds and Aitken knew all along as Chair and board member that their were serious financial irregularities and they also allowed the council legal department to fight a case of malice against the whistleblower when they knew that was wholly inaccurate.”

“What on earth does it take to remove corrupt officers?”

“Is it now council policy to allow senior officers to investigate themselves come up with a clean bill of health then give themself a whacking big pay rise?”

“Why would a senior official lie to Councillor Anderson and persue and smear a council employee that he knew was telling the truth?”

“Incidentially basa council staff want to know what was the name of the council officer who used the wrong procedures to sack Colin D. Answers on a post card.”

“What was the legal costs of fighting the whistleblower in court knowing it was wrong. Is there no code of conduct within the legal department? Audit Scotland should be alerted to this misuse of council tax payers money.”

“The council spent our money and insisted the whistleblower was malicious and it was all lies in the tribunal. What the hell is going on when the internal investigation says he was telling the truth.”

“Rosendale in 2002 was Company Secretary of ELLP (Cityconnect) WITH OVERALL RESPONSIBILTY for the financial and personnel matters. He authorised David Hillson to employ Ali Frater and Peter McDougall without interview or the posts being advertised. He then authorised salaries of £29,000 and £34,000 for the posts. Ali Frater has no formal qualifications or experience of ICT McDougall has no ICT qualifications or experience and Hillson has no ICT qualifications or experience.”

“David Hillson gave away the intellecual property rights for myEdinburgh to Mercurytide for free without the authority of other board members even although it was the right of ELLP to keep these - we believe this could have been the first ICT PPP contract in Edinburgh to screw the public.”

“Many in the department know that Mike Rosendale advised Peter McDougall and David Hillson to give jobs to both their children without advert or interview to keep the secrets within. Hillson then fixed a real job for his son”