Rewarding Incompetence? Cllr Ali Set for Deputy Mayor Role

As of midnight on the 1st September, Cllr Ali will be the statutory deputy Mayor of Newham Council.

It seems that within a few hours, Cllr Zulfiqar Ali is about to become the statutory Deputy Mayor. We noted on a previous occasion that the mayor might have reason to reconsider Cllr Ali for such important portfolios. 

We noted how, as a community lead councillor, he employed some rather unorthodox means to issue contracts (quite contrary to Newham’s published procedures) and how his oversight of the budget for an event led to an unexpected and unwelcome overspend. It seems that it was no accident that Ali was not selected as a candidate in the following elections.

This, we thought, did not bode well for the future financial wellbeing of the council. It’s not that he would be doing the council’s bookkeeping, that was being done by a team of people who knew what they were doing.

Rather, as the strategic lead for finance he would be required to engage in some very difficult conversations with his boss about what to spend money on and equally important, what to stop spending on. There is precious little evidence that any of these conversations ever happened.

The consequence was that Newham was taken to the verge of bankruptcy; as a consequence council tax rose substantially, Newham had to go cap in hand to Whitehall for a £50m bail out and council services are facing cuts across the board.

Perhaps this is his reward for not rocking the boat, but Ali is about to get a promotion and a pay rise of £5652. It can’t be because he has done well in his finance role in the cabinet, because he hasn’t.

Is it only in politics that failure is rewarded with a pay rise and prestigious new title?