“Nothing to See Here”

Current Mayor of Newham - Rokhsana Fiaz

The Audit Committee had a mass attendance online. At times there were a dozen people gripped by the drama.

In the arena sat four councillors plus officers. They were discussing the audit report.

For those who weren’t present or haven’t watched the whole sorry spectacle on ‘YouTube’. The shortened story is this.

Two years ago, the council officers agreed with the advice of a small committee, to settle the lawsuit that Mayor Fiaz had taken out against her own authority. This required that Newham Council, or rather Newham council-taxpayers, would cough up £30,000 + VAT (i.e. £36,000) to cover her legal fees.

That’s right, the mayor took out a legal case against the council she runs claiming that the organisation she ran had acted discriminatory way, against her. You couldn’t make this up. (See this previous Open Newham article for all the gory details.)

This seemed not only odd, but pushing at the very bounds of credulity. Open Newham and others all reflected upon the bizarre nature of the matter. 

Step forward a couple of years and councillors on the Audit Committee are discussing the audit report that will accompany the annual accounts. A fairly dry process you would imagine. Councillor Terry Paul brought up the point that this payment should be included as a factual statement in the accounts by the Auditors ErnstYoung. That does not of itself seem to be strange or illegitimate, especially in a council led by a mayor who supposedly championed transparency.

A pledge from the Labour 2022 Manifesto for the Local Elections.

The Monitoring Officer disagreed with Cllr Paul, saying there was a legal agreement whereby this payment should not be reported publicly. We have not seen, neither, so far as we know, have any councillors seen an agreement that says that they should be silent on this.  If such a thing exists, perhaps we should put in an FOI then at least we would know what has been kept from councillors.

But it seems bizarre to rest on this ‘agreement’ as the payment has been public knowledge for years.

We know it is an embarrassing payment for the council, but it is a statement of fact that the Mayor was paid £36,000 in the 2024/2025 financial year.  This was to cover the legal costs she incurred in taking her own council to court. 

But the discussion to include this statement of fact split the Audit Committee evenly. Councillor McAlmont led the case for Mayor Fiaz and wanted no disclosure in the accounts.

This is the same Councillor McAlmont who was one of a group chosen by officers to advise on the payment. It might be that he personally feels some embarrassment. We can understand that.

But we should ask at this point, whether Councillor McAlmont had a conflict of interest. As one of those who advised that the council make a payment to Mayor Fiaz, if nothing else, it looks shady. But clearly, the Monitoring Officer saw no problem with his voting in the Audit Committee on this matter.

In short, Councillor Terry Paul had moved inclusion of a note recording the payment. There were two votes for and two against. There was no majority so the words would not be included.

The committee should now have moved on to the next business by accepting the vote of the members that were present. But this is Newham.

So, the Monitoring Officer and Chief Executive Officer asked the audit committee to vote once again. Which they did and got the same result. 

Unable to take the ‘win’, someone now decided that the Audit Committee needed help. Members could not go home for the night without positively accepting the officers’ recommendations. Two ballots were not enough! So, it was decided to call up another councillor who apparently was not available that night and who had earlier sent in his apologies. 

Paul Martin - Newham Council CEO, Cllr Anthony McAlmont and Cllr Akthural Alam.

Most council meetings have to end by 9pm. An extension can be granted if agreed by the committee. The members of the Audit Committee did agree to an extension. Then miraculously, at  9.45pm just before the 10pm guillotine in walked, newbie Councillor Aktharul Alam to save the day for Fiaz and the Officers. 

The officers’ recommendations went through on the third time of asking.  As Councillor Alam was not present for the previous two hours of debate you might judge that he was not competent to vote as clearly, he had no knowledge of the matter under discussion nor the arguments for and against. But in Newham that didn’t matter; he had his instructions and he didn’t need to hear that debate.

So now the audit report will not include the words “Payment to Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz; £36,000 to cover legal fees incurred in taking her own council to court”.

An ex-councillor has noted to Open Newham that this now seems to be a council run by officers that allows debate and voting as long as the councillors vote in the way that the officers recommend.

In ten weeks there will be a new set of councillors. Let's hope they will be better at making their votes count.

What we do know is that whoever occupies the mayor’s office in 10 weeks’ time, it will not be Rokhsana Fiaz. One wonders why is it that she is so keen to erase any record of an embarrassing memory before she joins the dole queue.