Liberal Democrats demand answers on cabinet absences including debate on overpaid allowances

Oldham Liberal Democrats have demanded answers over the non-attendance of the Cabinet Member for finance – Abdul Jabbar – from audit committee meetings discussing the failings of payroll, and in particular on councillors’ allowances. 

Councillors’ allowances were part of a difficult meeting for the Labour administration on Wednesday night, with the admission that there had been “no-one looking” in the two years when these failings had taken place. 

Councillor Jabbar failed to attend, or send apologies or a substitute, and has not attended any of the audit committee meetings this year, when the committee had repeatedly been questioning the council over the failings of the payroll, which has been rated weak or inadequate for seven of the last eight years. Other cabinet members have also failed to attend meetings covering their portfolios.

Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, who questioned the administration on the £100,000+ overpayments, said: “This is not a one off – Councillor Jabbar has not attended any meeting this year when we have been discussing the problems in payroll – his name appears on the reports, but there is no sign of him. 

“People are rightly angry that these overpayments were made – as am I. It was shocking to me to find that no-one was taking responsibility when these mistakes were made. I find it extremely telling that when the audit committee was taking issue with this poor governance, the Cabinet Member responsible did not see fit to attend or send a substitute.”

The Liberal Democrat councillor has written to the leader of the Council – who did attend the meeting – to ask why Cabinet Members are failing to attend audit and scrutiny meetings directly tackling their departments. While it is not compulsory for the Cabinet Members to attend, it is good practice for them to do so.

Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “I’m taking this very seriously. In my role on audit, I have been demanding action on what has been going wrong. Clearly, others don’t seem to be taking it as seriously.

“Frankly, Cabinet Members need to a step up take responsibility, not duck questions and leave their staff in the firing line.”