Online tonight from the SADC website , you may have witnessed how Cabinet and Project Manager glossed over the small matter of who blundered in checking out the McNamara Co and it's billion plus debt leading to receivership.As published in the Hertsad on 25th November 2010 PoolTooSmall asked the key questions of SADC from which the following are extracted:-

1.       Why is it that within minutes of the public  being told that McNamara Co  had won the contract on 2^nd November 2010 – online checks by us , as reported on www.pooltoosmall.com   ,showed McNamara Co was in multi- billion Euro trouble?

2.       Why is it that 9 SADC Cabinet members  plus the Project Manager , Heads of Leisure, Finance and Legal  were all in blissful ignorance- they had the names of all bidders for months?

3.       Who blundered? It is NOT good enough to blame  an external  financial consultant.

It is the reponsibility of the Council to prove to itself and the people that it  had checked the work of the Consultant. It is NOT good enough just to accept the Consultant’s report .

There should have been someone on the Project teaming ensuring INDEPENDENTLY that they were not being given a  duff report – a pig in a poke.

4.       SADC are in damage limitation mode now where political dogma rules – “My mind is made up don’t confuse me with facts. Get another contractor – quick- after all it’s the people  of St.Albans who are paying for our blunders”. SADC - why not own up – your credibility is in tatters?

5.       On Sky News tonight 21^st November 2010 , the Irish PM admitted  to their “Construction collapse “ and please can we have up to 100 billion Euros from the Cenral Banks? SADC should have known if the rest of the world did! Ask the question – why not?

6.       The credibility of this incompetent, gullible and unprofessional  St Albans District Council is now fatally damaged. Time to vote with our feet at Local Elections next May?

7.       Is it not time to bring  the District Auditor into all this to investigate NOW? You can email  Mr Mark Hodgson  on   m-hodgson@audit-commission.gov.uk  Mark Hodgson,District Auditor ,1st floor,Millbank Tower,Millbank,London, SW1P 4HQ.

 

The New Lodge Project is technically, financially and professionally flawed- why doesn’t  SADC  have the guts to admit it and go back to the drawing board?

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO.

Please  email Overview and Scrutiny Chair Cllr Geffrey Turner  on Cllr.g.turner@stalbans.gov.uk to give evidence or ask questions at his Special Meeting in the Council Chamber on 14th December 2010 at 5.30 pm for 6pm.

Please put it in your diary now . The people  are NOT rolling over.

Eur. Ing. David L. Gilroy.  M.Sc. C.Eng. MIET.