0200 Hrs GMT London Monday 27 February 2012
Editor © Muhammad Haque
Time now for the DAILY MAIL to come clean on ITS role as propagandist in the CONDEM Big Biz agenda dirty campaign against people in low or no income being pushed into starvation by the DWP aided and abetted by IDS, Grayling and David Fraud.
Ed Miliband too has a heavy duty to discharge: why has HE been awing the multiple violations of the laws, breaches of the UK’s Constitutional duties by the CONDEM cruelty perpetrated against innocent people across the country by a cabal of ministers and propagandists paid for via the DWP to the tunes of millions?
The House of Commons “Work Pensions” Select Committee itself should be scrapped.
It has performed the role of any of the stooged group in a really totalitarian regime.
Compared to that stooged committee, Margaret Hedge’s Public Accounts Committee has shown remarkable teeth especially as the A4E disclosures so far have proven We have serious reservations abut Margaret Hog on her long record as part of the stoogers and this ideological affiliation that she has had al her career has influenced her chairing of the PAC committee too. But as compared to the Anne Begg-"chaired" stooged outfit supposedly there to scrutinise the DWP, the Hodge-chaired period has so far produced valuable pro accountability work. Credit is given where credit is due. But a long distance has yet to be covered by Hodge and the PAC too.
A Select Committee has got to be created to audit the likes of Liam Byrne. Drag them out of their shadowy op[opportunistic roes in the ironically designated zone of Shadow cabinet. He has been a disaster as far a holding IDS, Chris Grayling and David Fraud to account goes. Why won’t Ed Miliband shift Liam Byrne off that patch and put someone with knowledge and more importantly commitment against poverty-creation in pace to audit the lying cabal at the DWP?
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[To be continued]
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Ministers were told of fraud claims a month BEFORE back-to-work tsar got job
Last updated at 1:14 AM on 27th February 2012
Iain Duncan Smith’s department was told about fraud allegations at Emma Harrison’s company a month before she was appointed as back-to-work tsar by David Cameron.
Her firm, A4e, informed the Department for Work and Pensions within 48 hours of hearing about the claims in November 2010.
Yet despite this, the Prime Minister appointed the multi-millionairess ‘families champion’ that December.
Scandal: Emma Harrison last week stepped down as back-to-work tsar and chairman of A4e following fraud allegations and the arrest of four former employees
And a few months later, the DWP awarded the firm five contracts worth more than £400million to run Work Programme schemes up and down the country.
Labour work and pensions spokesman Liam Byrne said: ‘David Cameron must now come clean on how he came to appoint Emma Harrison as his family tsar. Just why did he appoint a woman to a senior role whose company his government knew was being investigated for fraud?’
Mr Byrne wrote to Mr Duncan Smith yesterday to ask exactly what he knew about the fraud allegations at the company – and when. He said the issue raised serious questions about the Government’s judgment in appointing Mrs Harrison as an adviser and awarding her firm so many contracts.
Mrs Harrison last week stepped down as back-to-work tsar and chairman of A4e following fraud allegations and the arrest of four former employees.
A4e has put a statement on its website saying that it informed the DWP after the allegations were made at the end of 2010.
The statement said: ‘A4e reported the incident to DWP within 48 hours, following a local, internal investigation.’
'Serious questions': Multimillionairess and former 'families champion' Mrs Harrison with her husband Jim
In the letter to Mr Duncan Smith, Mr Byrne said: ‘Despite your department being informed of this incident, three developments took place in the weeks following. On December 10, 2010, the Prime Minister appointed the chairman of A4e, Emma Harrison, to be the Government’s adviser on troubled families.
‘On December 22, 2010, the contracting process for the Government’s £3.5billion Work Programme began with the publication of the invitation to tender document. On April 1, 2011, the contracts for the Work Programme were announced with A4e being awarded five contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds.’
He went on: ‘Billions of pounds of public money are at stake in the Government’s Work Programme and I have constantly pressed you to be straight with the public on its effectiveness. In light of the very serious allegations of fraud at A4e, I am asking you again today to allow individual providers, such as A4e, to publish their performance data.
‘However, these allegations go beyond the effectiveness of the Work Programme. Given that your department knew about the allegations, they go to the issue of the Government’s judgment in how it dealt with them.’
Prior knowledge: A4e informed the Department for Work and Pensions within 48 hours of hearing about the claims in 2010, but Mrs Harrison was appointed by the Government a month later
Mr Byrne asks Mr Duncan Smith a series of questions, including when he, other ministers and senior officials were made aware of the fraud allegations.
He asks for all internal DWP correspondence relating to the allegations to be published. He asks whether Downing Street or the Cabinet Office were informed of the allegations before the appointment of Mrs Harrison as back to work tsar.
And he inquires whether the allegations had any impact on negotiations regarding the Work Programme contracts with A4e.
Ministers are facing increasing pressure to reconsider the decision to name A4e as preferred bidder for a £15million contract to run prison education schemes in London.
Margaret Hodge, chairman of the influential Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘The Government is displaying a lack of judgment in not calling a halt until all these allegations are investigated.
- LIAM BYRNE
‘I have been surprised by how many people are writing to me with issues around a whole range of contracts, not just one which is badly designed. I’ve had emails from people asking: what are they doing getting this contract when their record is so bad in other areas?
‘With all these question marks the Government really has to start calling a halt to these contracts.’
A senior Conservative source said: ‘This is extraordinary hypocrisy on the part of Labour.
‘They are the ones who set up these contracts which paid money when somebody was in work for a day. They are now trying to pass the buck when it is entirely their fault in the first place. Under the new arrangements, companies aren’t paid until someone is in place for six months. This kind of fraud could not happen now.’
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: ‘We have been clear that if there is any evidence of systematic fraud at A4e relating to previous or current business we will terminate existing contracts. We welcome A4e’s decision on Friday to have a full independent audit.
‘These cases, which have been in the public domain, all relate to previous back to work schemes. None of these cases apply to the Work Programme.’
A source at the department said the tendering process for all contracts is open, transparent and in keeping with long-standing EU law which does not allow for previous contracts to be taken into account.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106954/Ministers-told-fraud-claims-month-BEFORE-work-tsar-got-job.html#ixzz1nXdtHRIA
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