Fraud Office probe demanded into Westminster Council

Campaigners seek Fraud Office probe as Westminster Council named in £200m+  NSL Parking Enforcement contract scandal

In a week in which Westminster City Council (WCC) pulled the parking enforcement contract from NSL Ltd, No To Bike Parking Tax Campaign Chairman, Warren Djanogly today confirmed that a full complaint had been lodged with the Metropolitan Police, crime no 6507270/10 that alleges offences under the Fraud Act and Gross Misconduct in Public Office against 2 senior WCC officers regarding the authority by which NSL came to perform the £14m annual WCC parking enforcement contract in March 2007 (download complaint here).

As part of a series of investigations that could eventually involve over 30 Councils and could also result in their being ordered to repay over £200m in illegally issued PCN’s, clamps & vehicle removals, WCC would become the second Council, after Sunderland to be subject of a Police investigation as these Councils struggle to justify how they allowed NSL Ltd to be “awarded” the lucrative parking enforcement contracts vacated by National Car Parks Ltd following its sale to the Macquarie Group in March 2007 without appearing to go through the necessary procurement protocols and procedures.

With a handful of the Councils now hoping to rely on hurriedly prepared “Deeds of Novation” (legal transfer) in favour of NCP Services, under the perceived notion that its effects could be “backdated” at will, campaigners point to the tests clearly set out by the ECJ that any novation agreement, or any other “transfer” of a public services contract from one economic operator to another would come within the scope of the public procurement rules, and require a new tendering process.

Campaigners allege that the potential loss of valuable revenue during the inevitable hiatus that a retendering process would have caused may well have contributed to what would appear to be a blind acceptance by these Councils to the assertion by newly-formed NCP Services (now NSL) that it was “business as usual”. It appears that none of the Councils questioned so far has been able to provide written evidence of officially recognising NCP Services in March 2007 when it assumed responsibility for the enforcement contracts.

“Should it be proven that these contracts were in breach of procurement procedures then this must surely render PCN’s issued by NSL since 2007 void and unenforceable. As such, any Council unjustly enriched in this way should repatriate these funds immediately,” claimed veteran campaigner Neil Herron, who was forced to call in the Economic Crime Unit of Northumbria Police against Sunderland Council (attachment 2 download here), and who continues to spearhead investigations by private interested parties into all of the NCP contracting Councils.  Lib/Dem MP, Norman Baker, is currently asking questions of East Sussex District Council and his own District Auditor.

Normally, incidents where a Council could be accused of unjust enrichment, an objection to the accounts could be made to the District Auditor, who has the power to declare an item of account “contrary to law”. In the case of WCC, Djanogly alleges that the fabrication of the date of a supposed “novation” was deliberately set prior to the end of the 2007/8 accounting period, now closed by the District Auditor effectively time-barring any such objections. However, at the meeting with the District Auditor when this revelation was made, it was also stressed by the District Auditor that any evidence of alleged Fraud or Misconduct must be handed to the Police.

Explaining why NTBPT got involved, Djanogly stated “WCC’s decision to become the first Council in Europe to introduce parking charges for motorcycles came with the assurance that it would be “Revenue-Neutral”, that is where revenue generated via its Pay-By-Phone contractor, Verrus UK merely covered implementation & enforcement costs. Disbelieving that a Council would spend-a-pound-to-make-a-pound, we investigated these “implementation” costs only to discover violations of EU procurement with regard to the awarding of that Pay-By-Phone contract. Notified that the EU Commissioners had been alerted by others, and encouraged that the OFT would consider a dossier we prepared (http://www.notobikeparkingtax.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Demand-for-a-Public-Inquiry.pdf ), we switched our attention to the enforcement aspect, following Mr Herron’s lead, and were not surprised to find the same individuals within WCC involved in this scandal”,

He then added: “Our suspicions of foul play were raised when, not only did it take WCC over 6 weeks to produce a copy of a Deed of Novation claimed to have been signed in March 2008, but that this transfer of the 3rd largest contract award by WCC was supposedly sanctioned by the same officer as involved in the suspect contract awards without either any delegated power to do so by the Council Cabinet Member, or involvement by the WCC internal Legal Department. Regardless of my position as Chairman of a Campaign group against WCC, it was my civic duty to take the evidence collected to the proper authority”.

For more details contact with regard to:

Westminster Council – Warren Djanogly, - chairman@notobikeparkingtax.com – 07802 882681

Sunderland Council - Neil Herron - neil@parkingappeals.co.uk – 07776 202045

For more details contact with regard to No To Bike Parking Tax Campaign

Charlie Lort-Phillips - charlie@notobikeparkingtax.com

So there you have it, but we would like your support again. What we would like you to do is to write to your local MP to ask if they will support you in your request for a proper in-depth investigation of Westminster City Councils’ behaviour and absolutely despicable conduct in trying to cover up their cosy contracts with big business.

It is only with your contribution that we can create such a public outcry of the shameful way that Westminster Council have behaved towards you the taxpayer that we will be able to force these long overdue investigations. After all, they like to watch us with CCTV, saying that if we have nothing to hide we shouldn’t complain, so now is you chance to turn the spotlight on them. We are asking you to do the very least you can do from the comfort of your keyboard, and that is to write to your local MP, present them with the facts we have published here, and tell us what they say.

Will they dare to pass this crime off as a local matter to you, what excuse will they make, please let us know. We want to know, are our elected representatives really working for us, or themselves?

If you don’t live in London this should still effect you, local Councils everywhere are looking at you as a cash cow. Westminster happens to be the lead Council, as trained by disgraced ex council leader Shirley Porter to be professional crooks, so they now think they can screw up your life style, are you going to let them? If this virus is not killed in Westminster now it will spread to your front door.

Nutsville believes there is an enormous fraud going on in Westminster and in many local councils throughout the UK, so now is the time to stamp this out. If you ride a scooter or a motorcycle this is your chance to pin down the person who’s elected to speak for you. Ask them what specific action they intend to take on your behalf. Whatever they say let us know, we will publish their responses, and we will cut through the bullshit replies.

It does make a difference, because if it didn’t why are Westminster Council one of our biggest visitors. They love us or maybe hate us, but many of their Councillors have us bookmarked in fear that we are going to write about them next, they just have to keep reading. But our MP’s are important, not the local wannbies at Westminster. Nutsville spoke to the alternative comedian Mark Thomas the other day, he said he must have spoken to around 200 MP’s, but only 6 of those were real people. So what’s your MP like, any good, lets find out?

Remember, bikers are voters (RAV), you are not second class citizens, and we hope you think like us.

We have had enough of paying the same taxes as everyone else, so why are we being constantly ignored?

To contact you local MP please use They Work For You website, we really want to know what MP’s think, and if they are really prepared to speak up and take action on behalf of their constituents, don’t let this cancer spread to your door step.

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