Councillor Paul Mills Oakham Town Council Comments on my post about Oakham Town Council Accounts
Today I posted an email I sent to my adorable fellow town councillors
so far I have received one slighty rude reply from Councillor Mills.
I post it below as he wishes.
Cllr Mills once told me he has a reputation to upkeep because of his work in the
community and primarily the prison service.
He will lose that as a member of Oakham Town fast.
He like some others thinks Oakham Town Council is like the social clubs he
belongs to the same ones our Mayor belongs to.
That is far from the truth Oakham Town Council is a level of local government
yes I know it is embarrassing.
Therefore as a Councillor I and others have a responsibility to point out when
we have a defective and rude overpaid clerk.
I can also criticise and point out the failure to present true and fair accounts
to an external auditor.
I can also point out when the council fails to safeguard public money
or as the Tories prefer tax payers money. probably these days hard
working families money is the prefered description who knows.
I should be able to do this without constant exclusion and childish comment
and in some cases homophobic conduct from other councillors.
Oakham Town Council is not open to any form of scrutiny.
Anyway here is hoping Cllr Mills remembers his threat to resign on Wednesday
His fellow lions Chum our Mayor is raising the issue about the Victoria Hall Rep
He said he will resign if there is a fuss. Odd if the letter received from the
hall secretary is a lie why would he want to resign?
Now I can only imagine how rude his reply would have got if I had ever
been towards him any of the things he accuses me of in this comment.
Because we are trying to change things and move the Council forward – whereas as your continual sniping, nastiness, vindictiveness, aggression, arrogance, rudeness, and lack of support for the remaining 11 Councillors is doing no good for the Council, or the people you supposedly represent. Councillor Howard and I both live in the same Ward as you, so why is it that we don’t get any of the comments from the public that you supposedly get? Do you make it up, or can you give names and dates in your spirit of openness?
Referring to his first comment about the fire alarm when they kicked me out of the
meeting and locked themselves in the office to continue the meeting unlawfully
I pressed the test button on the control panel. It achieved my aim it stopped there meeting.
Afterwards Cllr Howard spoke to me nice chap who does nothing that I am aware of is a local fireman and I agreed it was not wise and won't do that again. If there is a repeat of an unlawful
exclusion I will take other action within the law perhaps my own siren or fart spray.
Sorry about that it's just Oakham Town Council is worse than being at school,
Although this should happen I see little point in this being done if those members are not going to question anything. This was true of the Wilkin Chapman Invoice.
It seems those responsible for signing the council's cheques do so without any questioning or regard to safeguarding taxpayers money and sign anything placed in front of them by the office.
The possibility of training is mentioned in the accountants report.
Today I posted an email I sent to my adorable fellow town councillors
so far I have received one slighty rude reply from Councillor Mills.
I post it below as he wishes.
Cllr Mills once told me he has a reputation to upkeep because of his work in the
community and primarily the prison service.
He will lose that as a member of Oakham Town fast.
He like some others thinks Oakham Town Council is like the social clubs he
belongs to the same ones our Mayor belongs to.
That is far from the truth Oakham Town Council is a level of local government
yes I know it is embarrassing.
Therefore as a Councillor I and others have a responsibility to point out when
we have a defective and rude overpaid clerk.
I can also criticise and point out the failure to present true and fair accounts
to an external auditor.
I can also point out when the council fails to safeguard public money
or as the Tories prefer tax payers money. probably these days hard
working families money is the prefered description who knows.
I should be able to do this without constant exclusion and childish comment
and in some cases homophobic conduct from other councillors.
Oakham Town Council is not open to any form of scrutiny.
Anyway here is hoping Cllr Mills remembers his threat to resign on Wednesday
His fellow lions Chum our Mayor is raising the issue about the Victoria Hall Rep
He said he will resign if there is a fuss. Odd if the letter received from the
hall secretary is a lie why would he want to resign?
Now I can only imagine how rude his reply would have got if I had ever
been towards him any of the things he accuses me of in this comment.
Because we are trying to change things and move the Council forward – whereas as your continual sniping, nastiness, vindictiveness, aggression, arrogance, rudeness, and lack of support for the remaining 11 Councillors is doing no good for the Council, or the people you supposedly represent. Councillor Howard and I both live in the same Ward as you, so why is it that we don’t get any of the comments from the public that you supposedly get? Do you make it up, or can you give names and dates in your spirit of openness?
Referring to his first comment about the fire alarm when they kicked me out of the
meeting and locked themselves in the office to continue the meeting unlawfully
I pressed the test button on the control panel. It achieved my aim it stopped there meeting.
Afterwards Cllr Howard spoke to me nice chap who does nothing that I am aware of is a local fireman and I agreed it was not wise and won't do that again. If there is a repeat of an unlawful
exclusion I will take other action within the law perhaps my own siren or fart spray.
Sorry about that it's just Oakham Town Council is worse than being at school,
Councillor Brookes,
I am constantly amazed at your total negativity as regards Oakham Town Council, its staff, and the other 11 Councillors that serve on it (5 of which are brand new to the role since the elections in May).
You constantly post vitriolic, often untrue, and nasty comments about individuals on your Social Media sites where they have little or no right of redress.
In addition to the above, I cannot see the reason why you are on the Council as I have yet to see any positive, co-operative, supportive, and reasonable comments from you.
As you so often selectively post things on various sites, could I ask you to also post this ENTIRE email exchange on your blog so that the public at large can see the whole picture?
Please see my further “red” comments below
Yours sincerely
Paul Mills
Councillor
From: Martin Brookes
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 8:48 AM
Cc: Adam Lowe ; Cllr Jasmine Hopkins ; Stan Stubbs ; Richard White ; Paul Mills ; Vince Howard ; Michael Elliott ; Joyce Lucas ; Alf Dewis ; Allison Greaves ; David Blanksby ; Alex Moore ; alan.duncan.mp@parliament.uk ; news@lincsfm.co.uk ; news@rutlandradio.co.uk ; Hubbard, Chris
Subject: OTC Accounts
Dear All,
I have read the report carefully from Street accountants. The conclusion attached I am reading to say the councils annual return was not a true and fair view of the council's accounts.
The Mayor and Clerk at two meetings persuaded this council that it was a true.
Despite it being pointed out it was not.
Despite it being pointed out it was not.
When I attempted to point this out again the second meeting, the Mayor adjourned the meeting and attempted to eject me from the meeting unlawfully, claiming I was disrupting the meeting.
Which you were !
You also illegally set off the Fire Alarm at the Victoria Hall for which you should have been charged!
All the actions possibly of a dishonest Mayor with a lot to hide?
How can you possibly make such accusations as this without providing any proof? If there is no evidence you should publicly apologise.
The way you have worded this is very crafty and nasty as you stop short of liable.
This is why I am requesting an audit on Wednesday, which I previously requested and was deliberately ignored by the Mayor Cllr Alf Dewis. My proposal to seek a full audit was changed by our Mayor to a review and all we received is a very costly and pointless review something Cllr Blanksby pointed out at the time we discussed a review he said "it won't tell us anything we don't already know", no criticism of the accountants that is exactly what we have and £3000 is costly when you consider we paid the internal auditor £100 a visit for the last five years to audit the accounts. It now appears this was also money wasted is this why for most of the time he failed to sign his reports?
Although you do not seem to understand, Streets Accountants have in my opinion, done a good job and have been very supportive in terms of helping us correct the book-keeping errors. There is absolutely NO evidence that there was any attempt to deceive anyone. Their recommendations to change some procedures will be looked at by The Finance Working Group (FWG) with a view to updating and improving where necessary the Finance Rules that we follow. A POSITIVE move!
I Also ask for an audit because Cllr Alf Dewis has been obstructive and dishonest with his answers regarding his unauthorised expenditure. This all changed when he was questioned by the local press. According to the KPMG website this is one of the ten indicators of possible fraud.
Cllr Dewis also lied and misled public when he lied to the press he is quoted as saying Streets Accountants were looking for issues and mistakes, Streets Accountants have made it very clear to me this was not the case and they were not carrying out an audit. Therefore I question why every time the review has been mentioned at public meetings members of the finance group have misled the council by describing it as a audit?
If I remember correctly, Michael Elliott, David Blanksby and I have never misled you by saying it was an “audit” so please retract that comment. Streets did what they were asked to do under their Terms of Reference, which I presume you have read?
I am also very concerned at the serious lack of care when handling public money.
A failure to follow basic safeguarding when making carrying out transactions.
As you claim to know so much about this subject, could I suggest that you go through the Councils current Financial Rules and highlight all the areas that are wrong and suggest alternative rules and wording.
Those on the FWG would be please to receive any supportive comments or amendments. Another POSITIVE idea.
Although not part of the report tendering is a great cause for concern but a concern regarding the expenditure of taxpayers money.
When AA Cleaning service tendered for the current contract the council was told by the Clerk after all the tenders were received and then owner of AA contacted him and stating he had made a mistake the Clerk gave him consent to submit a new tender it was no surprise when that came before this council as the cheapest and he was awarded the contract again.
As you are well aware from the list that I gave you, items such as looking carefully at all future Tenders was raised by me for examination by the FWG. Yet another POSITIVE idea.
Cllr Elliot at a recent meeting when referring to the Clerks work described it as "careless and sloppy" I would say it is a lot worse than this but don't blame him, this council has permitted a situation where the Clerk does most things as and when he pleases and then if challenged he goes home sick, this has been the case for many years first highlighted to me by a past Mayor Mrs Spencer, what a mess this council has created.
I often feel as if he employs councillors and not the other way around.
I often feel as if he employs councillors and not the other way around.
The selective ban of Councillors entering the council's office at anytime because we might see confidential material on the Clerk's desk the reason given the other day by Cllr Howard. This excessive secrecy is another indicator of fraudulent activity highlighted on KPMG's list.
You have taken the KPMG comment completely out of context and used it for your own ends. There are things in the office that we do not need to see until the appropriate time, as issues have been made public before we have had time to debate them!
The accountants report suggests something put before this council nearly five years ago, recommending two councillors should sign a slip before any electronic payments are made.
That is on the list for the FWG and will be implemented – another POSITIVE move.
Although this should happen I see little point in this being done if those members are not going to question anything. This was true of the Wilkin Chapman Invoice.
It seems those responsible for signing the council's cheques do so without any questioning or regard to safeguarding taxpayers money and sign anything placed in front of them by the office.
Purchase orders are not checked against invoices before signing cheques. A good suggestion this is also on the list for the FWG – POSITIVE
They also fail to check as in the case of Cllr Alf Dewis expenditure (Wilkin Chapman invoice) to see if the correct authority to spend was gained in accordance with the council own financial regulations.
I trust you will provide the former Mayor Mr Beech with a copy of the accountants report, his public deputation suggesting a few minor mistakes and his personal attack of myself was a disgrace.
I still can not understand why all councillors are continuing to support the Mayor and the current situation the council finds itself in.
Because we are trying to change things and move the Council forward – whereas as your continual sniping, nastiness, vindictiveness, aggression, arrogance, rudeness, and lack of support for the remaining 11 Councillors is doing no good for the Council, or the people you supposedly represent. Councillor Howard and I both live in the same Ward as you, so why is it that we don’t get any of the comments from the public that you supposedly get? Do you make it up, or can you give names and dates in your spirit of openness?
As for staffing, I believe the council should be seeking an urgent immediate review.
Why, and on what grounds; what are you recommending? Be POSITIVE.
The possibility of training is mentioned in the accountants report.
It is said you can not teach an old dog new tricks.
Which indicates that you do not want to support people’s attempts to improve?
The Clerk has been provided with all the tools he needs to do the job and has the authority with no budget restrictions or any other restrictions to make individual purchases as he pleases upto £1000, I am not aware of many other organisations that gives anyone such freedom and this is a concern when dealing with Taxpayers money. I refer to this year already we have seen extravagant expenditure of just over £1000 spent on tea and cake for the poorly attended freedom of entry most of this food ended up in the bin.
As this expenditure is over £1000 can the Clerk please provide me with the signed authority required from the two members?
As this expenditure is over £1000 can the Clerk please provide me with the signed authority required from the two members?
The Clerk uses two accounting software packages one of them is Sage quite costly and can do all that is required by the council. Why is it used solely for the use of payroll for two people. Most accountants
would provide a payroll service for less than the amount the council is paying Sage each year.
would provide a payroll service for less than the amount the council is paying Sage each year.
If the Clerk just used Sage for all the council's accounting needs he would not have been able to make what he claims to be three mistakes by entering the 3 payments not received from Body Power Fitness Limited.
Which cleared all the tenants debt and led to a untrue and unfair statement of the 2014 -2015 accounts.
Which cleared all the tenants debt and led to a untrue and unfair statement of the 2014 -2015 accounts.
I am not saying Sage is a easy tool to grasp many user don't describe it in a complementary manner, the could in fact use a much cheaper adequate software mentioned by the Accountant Quicken, I have used this it. it is fool proof as a example it won't let you print off cheques if a invoice can not be found on the system and it produces very tidy reports which can be printed with a click of a mouse and it won't let the user make unexplained alterations as currently permitted by the current use of the Scribe.
An accountant tells me if the clerk describes the Body Power Fitness Ltd cash book entries as a mistake it would be impossible to prove it was or not.
Which Accountant, when, and why?
Knowing the circumstances and the historic relationship between the council and Body Power Fitness Ltd. I strongly suspect theses transactions were entered into the cash book fraudulently What evidence do you have to make that comment?
and ask was the Clerk asked to enter them by a Councillor? Many people have approached me
who, when, where, and why? Why have all the people that Councillor Howard and I know on the Ward not approached us, is it a set up?
and asked how do you make that sort of mistake three times in one day and for the same account? I don't have the answer and don't understand the clerks explanation.
From
Martin Brookes
