The Council's Corrupted Complaints Procedure
WE HAVE A PROBLEM Ealing Council’s corrupted complaints procedure. The procedure is fine. The senior officers who run it are not. I complained about a green rubbish collection. It was sorted out immediately by a junior duty officer. However, when I and five neighbours complained about the conduct of senior officers, it was dealt with by senior officers. They failed to treat with us with honestly.The reason is obvious. Complaints against senior officers are dealt with by senior colleagues who in all likelihood know them and with whom they may have social or other relationships. Though their obligation as public servants is to deal with complaints with IMPARTIALITY, they act as “counsel for the defence” for their friends, in contravention of the Council’s Code for Employees and the Seven Principles of Public Life. They bring the Council into disrepute. A FORMULA FOR CORRUPTION has emerged. To avoid investigating allegations against senior colleagues, officers (1) claim the matter has already been dealt with, (2) fail to produce evidence of that when asked to demonstrate it is other than a lie, and (3) attempt to terminate the procedure prematurely, denying complainants the right that Council policy affords them to request escalation. In particularly disgraceful examples, (4) this has been accompanied by a threat to accuse the complainant of being a “persistent complainant” and deny them Council services if they continued to assert their right. If this fails, they (5) falsely claim the complaint has run its course in the internal procedure so that they can foist their responsibility off onto the Local Government Ombudsman. The latest news: the Council’s senior legal officer colluded with a senior colleague about whom a complaint had been made and allowed her herself to decide whether the complaint against her should go ahead! She decided to ignore it. Well, she would, wouldn’t she! Ealing’s senior legal officer seems unaware of the principle of natural justice that no one should be judge of their own cause (Nemo Judex in Causa Sua). We have been obliged to make complaints against a succession of seven officers as the lie (“already dealt with”) has been passed down the line. “Tell one for the team” seems to be the esprit de corps in Ealing’s top offices. Our most serious concerns are with the officers who presently control the complaints procedure: Ms Reynolds, Director of Customer and Transactional Services and so in charge of Ealing’s complaints procedure, Ms Harris Director of Legal and Democratic Services and Mr Najserak, the CEO. What is needed is a PUBLIC enquiry by an independent agency into the behaviour of these officers in which they can be called to account and questioned by the complainants. And that should be the arrangement whenever a complaint against a senior officer reaches stage three. A system of that kind might enjoy confidence. I have put this matter to every one of Ealing’s elected members. They may at present be concerned with constituents’ problems, but I am hoping they may at an appropriate time in the future be able to respond. The problem is not going to go away.
Andrew Farmer ● 2313d5 Comments ● 2311d