Allegations of financial mismanagement at Essex Fire and Rescue Service have been referred to in the House of Lords by a former fire minister.
Speaking during the second reading of the government’s Localism Bill on Tuesday (7 June), Baroness Angela Smith said that she had raised the allegations with Essex Fire and Rescue Authority following national and local media reports.
The fire service has been under the media spotlight, including allegations of fire chiefs staying at ‘lavish’ hotels and eating ‘lobster dinners’ while planning to cut frontline services.
While she was not in a position to make any judgment on the substance of the allegations, she was “bitterly disappointed” and her confidence in the complaints process was being “severely tested” by Essex fire authority’s response.
She raised the matter as part of a series of reservations she had with fire and rescue aspects of the Localism Bill, including the proposed power to charge for attending false alarms and ambiguity over other powers that fire and rescue services and the secretary of state may have.
“I am in the position of having received information that gives many people, including me, cause for real concern, but there seems to be no way for these matters to be fully investigated in a robust and transparent way which gives confidence to the complainants,” said Baroness Smith. “That is unacceptable.”
She said the public needed to be reassured that the management, including financial management, of public bodies is above reproach and can withstand scrutiny.
"With new powers and new charges being introduced [in the Bill], with certain constraints, the public will need to be satisfied that there is proper and effective scrutiny. I regret that my experience to date has not given me confidence in the current system.”
In response, Essex Fire and Rescue Authority issued a statement saying that Baroness Smith’s comments had been brought to the attention of relevant authority members.
“The fire authority can confirm that…it received from Baroness Smith of Basildon in a letter dated 21 April 2011, a detailed anonymous complaint making various allegations as to financial mismanagement within Essex Fire and Rescue Service. In response to this, the clerk to the fire authority, in accordance with the authority’s procedures, convened a meeting of a panel of fire authority members.”
The statement went on to say that while a number of the allegations had previously been the subject of an independent investigation in 2008, “there were allegations within the anonymous complaint that had not been previously investigated and were not matters of policy.”
Essex Fire and Rescue Authority said this decision was communicated to Baroness Smith by letter from the authority’s clerk dated 6 June 2011. The statement continues:
“At the time of the clerk’s letter, it was not possible to say how the matter would be taken forward, but the fire authority can now confirm that the matter has been raised with the Audit Commission’s appointed external auditor, who will consider the matter in accordance with their statutory duties.”
The authority went on to express “its considerable surprise that [Baroness Smith] made a statement in the House of Lords when either she had received the letter of 6 June 2011 setting out the steps the authority intended to take or if not, she had not waited to hear of the [authority’s] decision.”
The statement ended saying: “Further comment at this time would be inappropriate”.
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