Whistleblowing Disclosure Mentioned in Annual Governance Report

The request was partially successful.

Dear Waveney District Council,

With reference to the Annual Governance Report (Audit 2008/09) September 2009, para. 24 under Material Weaknesses in Financial Control reference is made to an amendment being made to the Annual Governance Statement following a whistleblowing disclosure during that year.

Could you please provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:

1. What was the substance of the whistleblowing disclosure?

2. What internal action was taken to address this disclosure?

3. In the council's view, why was this information required to be whistleblown? Who was responsible for the initial coverup and why?

4. What disciplinary action has been taken against any individuals for perpetuating the coverup that was disclosed against?

5. What other information do you have pertaining to this disclosure, the matter contained in the disclosure and any other relevant facts to the whistleblowing incident.

Yours faithfully,

Brian J. Morton

Dear Waveney District Council,

I am still awaiting a response for my FOI request with regard to a whistleblowing disclosure.

By law you were required to respond promptly and should have responded by the 20th of January 2010 at the very latest so this is now overdue.

Please provide a response to my request or at the very least confirmation this is being processed and when you expect to be able to respond by reply.

Full detail of this request can be found at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wh...

Yours faithfully,

Brian Morton

Dear Waveney District Council,

I am still waiting for any kind of response to my Freedom of Information Request regarding a whistleblowing disclosure.

As I informed you in my previous email you have a legal obligation to respond prompty and should have responded by January 20th at the latest.

Please confirm that you are in receipt of my request and that it is in progress.

If I do not hear from you I will have no choice but to contact the Information Comissioner with regard to your failure to respond.

Yours faithfully,

Brian Morton

Dear Waveney District Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Waveney District Council's handling of my FOI request 'Whistleblowing Disclosure Mentioned in Annual Governance Report'.

As yet no response or ackowledgement has been received. Unless a substantive response to this request is received within the next seven days I will open a complaint with the Information Comissioner.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wh...

Yours faithfully,

Brian Morton

Brian Morton left an annotation ()

Complaint filed with Information Commissioner

Right2Know,

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Morton,

Freedom of Information Act Request - Ref No 7123

Please find attached a letter in reply to your outstanding FOI request regarding the above, together with a copy of our complaints leaflet.

Please also accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you.

A copy of the attached letter has also been sent to the Information Commissioners Office for their information.

Kind regards,

David Hunter
FOI Officer
Waveney District Council

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Dear Waveney District Council,

With reference to your eventual reply and rejection of my Freedom of Information Act request regarding a Whistleblowing Disclosure (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wh...

In order for me to consider my next steps, mainly if I agree refusal is reasonable can you please provide me with the following information:

1. When did Waveney become aware of this whistleblowing disclosure?

2. When did the internal investigation begin?

3. When do you expect the investigation to be completed?

4. When do you expect to be able to make the substance of the disclosure and outcome of the investigation public?

I do understand that 3 and 4 must be estimations only.

Please confirm receipt of this message and give an approximate timeframe for your response. If you are in a position to answer one or more of my questions before others then please do so.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Morton

Dear Right2Know,

I have not received any confirmation or reply to my request for clarification.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Morton

Dear Right2Know,

As my request for clarification is still outstanding you will leave me with no alternative but to make this request the subject of a second complaint to the Information Commissioner.

Please answer my questions!

Yours sincerely,

Brian Morton

Right2Know,

Dear Mr Morton,

Freedom of Information Act Request- Ref No 7123
Whistleblowing Disclosure

In reply to your outstanding enquiry, please find below further information as requested. The answers to the questions raised are shown in bold.

1. When did Waveney become aware of this whistleblowing disclosure?

Reply - The Chief Executive received a letter from the Audit Commission on 23.02.09 which stated that they were handling a Whistleblowing case related to Waveney District Council.

2. When did the internal investigation begin?

Reply - An internal investigation has not taken place. The Audit Commission are undertaking an investigation.

3. When do you expect the investigation to be completed?

Reply - The Audit Commission are currently investigating. We have not been advised of a completion date as yet.

4. When do you expect to be able to make the substance of the disclosure and outcome of the investigation public?

Reply - We would certainly report the key findings in our Annual Governance Statement for the financial year ending 2010-11 and at a Standards Committee and any other relevant Committee once the Audit Commission concludes it work.

I have copied this reply to the Information Commissioners Office so they are aware that a reply has now been sent to you, and we do apologise for the delay in replying to you again.

Kind Regards,

David Hunter
FOI Officer
Waveney District Council

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Dear Waveney District Council,

With reference to your eventual reply and rejection of my Freedom
of Information Act request regarding a Whistleblowing Disclosure
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wh...

In order for me to consider my next steps, mainly if I agree
refusal is reasonable can you please provide me with the following
information:

1. When did Waveney become aware of this whistleblowing disclosure?

2. When did the internal investigation begin?

3. When do you expect the investigation to be completed?

4. When do you expect to be able to make the substance of the
disclosure and outcome of the investigation public?

I do understand that 3 and 4 must be estimations only.

Please confirm receipt of this message and give an approximate
timeframe for your response. If you are in a position to answer one
or more of my questions before others then please do so.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Morton

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Dear Mr. Hunter,

Thank you for your reply.

So you were informed in February 2009 of the disclosure and yet are now saying you expect to have some information published after March 2011 when the governance statement for 2010/11 is published - over two years after you become aware of the disclosure.

To clarify please - is the audit commission investigating or the District Auditor who I believe is appointed by but seperate from the audit commission?

Please take this as a request to perform an internal review on your decision not to provide me with this information. The open-ended timescales you are talking about are unacceptable. Given that Waveney are no doubt aware of the substance of the disclosure as are all concerned individuals and obviously the whistleblower themselves I fail to see how denying this information would in any way affect or jeapordise an ongoing investigation.

Please try and respond to my request for a review and the query about who is investigating in a reasonable time to avoid this request becoming a third-time breach of the freedom of information act for you.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Morton

Dear Waveney District Council,

Please note that I am still awaiting the result of an internal review for my request regardinf the Whistleblowing Disclosure.

Full details of this request can be found at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wh...

As with the initial response you are now breaking the law regarding timely performance of internal reviews.

Yours faithfully,

Brian Morton

Right2Know,

Thank you for your e-mail received today.

Your request for information is being considered and will be replied to within 20 working days in line with the Freedom of Information Act.

Kind Regards,
FOI Team
Waveney District Council

Confidentiality: This email and its attachments are intended for the above named only and may be confidential. If they have come to you in error you must take no action based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone; please reply to this email and highlight the error.

Security Warning: Please note that this email has been created in the knowledge that Internet email is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when emailing us.

Viruses: Although we have taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free.

Dear Right2Know,

My request for an internal review was sent to you on the 10th of June and should have been completed by now. Are you saying it will take a further 20 working days and if so please tell me why.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Morton

Right2Know,

1 Attachment

Dear Brian Morton

Freedom of Information Request - Whistleblowing Disclosure

I am writing in response to your expired request, Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to you. After speaking with relevant departments our Assistant Chief Executive of Waveney District Council he has stated the investigation is now complete and has now provided me with the information you requested.

The relevant link to what was presented by the District Auditor is http://www.waveney.gov.uk/agendas/2010/J...

Please also accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you, and for not providing this information within 20 working days as required under the Act.

If you are not happy with the way in which your request has been handled you should contact the Information Rights Officer at Waveney District Council or email [email address]

A copy of our complaints procedure is also attached.

Kind Regards,

David Hunter
FOI Officer
Waveney District Council.


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