Tower Hamlets Mayor, Lutfur Rahman Sanctions £1,000/day 'Advisor'

Posted on | Wednesday 15 February 2012 | No Comments

The contract to hire a consultant on regeneration and development raises a number of issues. Firstly, when we (that is the honest taxpayer) already pay £100,000/annum for a Head of Strategy, Regeneration and Sustainability, plus a further £700,000/annum in salaries to the combined heads of other Development and Renewal departments, why do we need a consultant? Who challenged this appointment?

Secondly, we need to look more closely at the mandate Lutfur Rahman, who we are led to believe made this appointment, actually holds. Just 13% of the electorate in Tower Hamlets voted for Lutfur Rahman as Mayor: that's right, just 13% and based on this astonishingly low level of support he was gifted the position of Chief Executive. 

On an allowance of £65,000 pa, he overseas a £1b+ annual budget without ever having to undergo the rigours of an executive selection criteria that shareholders demand in the corporate world. This is the unacceptable face of democracy.

To be fair, responsibility for this state of affairs is to shared between a dysfunctional electoral system that permits a candidate to be elected on such a small percentage of the popular vote, and 75% of the electorate of Tower Hamlets who didn't consider it important enough to go out and vote.

Under this Mayor's autocratic management style, we are left to assume the £1k/day contract to Mr Winterbottom slipped by any presentation to council; all of whom are there to represent our interests.

We must all be aware of the merit or otherwise of the person representing this Borough at the highest level, and the weaknesses of the (democratic) system that permits such an individual to assume this position of authority and responsibility without the due diligence of rigorous selection..

Change is needed to the way we run our borough. We demand a system of governance that embraces efficiency, honesty, and integrity; a system that we can rely on and trust. We owe it to our children so that they will inherit a borough to be proud of.

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