Councillor rejects axed police watchdog used as 'political football' (From Harrow Times)

It is no use Cllr Hall shamming that she is dismayed at our demise,when she has spent the best part of a year slagging the HPCCG off,via local papers and at various HPCCG meetings.Everyone has witnessed her outrageous behaviour first-hand.Still no let up,no apology and no remorse for so much damage inflicted on volunteers endeavouring to serve their public.

We have no objection to be made accountable but deeply resent being insulted and called all sorts of names and painted as villains who have embezzled funds. This from a prominent Harrow Councillor, who is meant to be a public servant.Everything could have been conducted in a dignified and non-confrontational manner but was not.

Please look under article "HPCCG disbands after funds axed in white wash" and read the link "Watchdog under fire for unacceptable fundings".

We had hoped Cllr Hall would have stopped going on and on relentlessly about "inappropriate spends" after these had been examined and publicly passed last July but she hasnt and wont since it might win her some brownie points!The link gives you full details of wild accusations made by her to sensationalise and justify her allegations.It seems unbecoming Conduct is acceptable for some of our Councillors.

I would beg to differ from Cllr Hall when she says I failed ,along with our management team,to fill in our funding applications on thrice this financial year and should have asked for help.Where was she when we informed our members we had not been successful in July 2011---pre-occupied with tarnishing our reputations.She could have offered her guidance and expertise!

What no other CPEG in London can believe is how after ten or more years of successfully filing and acquiring our funding ,the HPCCG Chair and her team suddenly became so poor at this task and failed to acquire our monies.Beggars belief!


Cllr Hall has stated we had hoped to get £50000 for 2011-12.We had been categorically informed by our Link officer that since we had already received interim funding of £20000 like every other London borough and we could only expect to get a maximum additional £2000-3000.This was because we were already reaching January.

Please do not misinform the unsuspecting public that we would have received £5000o this year!!

It had been pre-determined that we would get the least possible,just to keep our group "ticking over" and cover administrative costs.With this in mind,we have been made to spend the first half of 2011 revamping our Constituiton,produci
ng accounts for two previous years(very time-consuming) and latterly filling in funding application forms 00twice with NO HELp form the admin or the MPA.

So far as having funds in hand for our borough for this financial year ,lets see how much precisely the MOPC will dish out to Harrow,before this financial year ends.


Even remaining funds from the our Interim funding of £20,000 have to be returned to the MOPC.So what has Harrow had---as a result of all this politicking!Remember the majority of London boroughs have been handsomely funded---barring Harrow for 2011-12.We have LOST valuable funding for our community engagement.That is NOT good governance!!

Besides,the MPA have not turned us down for "wrong doing "or "inappropriate spends",just found fault to save monies.If that is untrue,then give us our share of the monies were entitled to.Let a refreshed group handle this!We cahllenge you.

Please examine what Cllr Hall says and what actually transpires.

You can fool some of the people some of the time,not all of the people ,all of the time!

Please stop trailing red herrings and misleading our public.We are happy a to answer your queries and have nothing to hide.In fact,we have plenty of evidence and statements from very senior members of the MPA,the Harrow Borough Commander and GLA member for Brent and Harrow confirming our accounts are in good order and that we have served with honesty and integrity.Our members have also examined and agreed all our accounts to date.Theu have made generous comments appreciating our dedicated work.

Kindly allow selfless,upstanding Harrovians to get on with the difficult task of getting our community engagement back on track as a TOP PRIORITY.


Please stop messing about with our independent community engagement forum and let us make our police robustly accountable.We are wasting valuable Police time and behaving in a manner which is detrimental to our community cohesion in such a diverse borough.Harrow cannot afford to take such a risk.Remember we have outsiders looking at us with jelaous eyes and dont want to fall prey to them.

Goodbye Ms. Malkani. If you should at some time in the future decide to re-enter local politics you would be well advised to keep records of on what public money is being spent and to publish the details when requested.

Seabee

You are ill-informed.Mrs Malkani is not a politician but a local resident so how can she re-enter local politics!

Why would you wish to gloat that the police watchdog (HPCCG) has folded? It is in the interest of Harrovians that there is independent scrutiny of the police and our police support this.

Accounts can be examined at Harrow Council by applying to Democratic Services.

When you have examined the accounts in detail you may then ask questions about them. If you do not go to examine the accounts everything you say is a vague aspersion.

I am surprised to see now the attack is made against the HPCCG committee. This is disingenuous. It was not the fault of the committee or of governance. Everything was done by the book. It is evident there were some sinister moves going on behind the scenes of pulling of plug by MPA of HPCCG. This view was
aired and expressed openly by the HPCCG members at their AGM. To get to the bottom of this, there is need for an independent inquiry who find out who are
behind this plot.

Some individuals keep on harping about the accounts, although accounts were presented and approved at the HPCCG meetings in July, 2011 .
Why are these very persons not talking or complaining the billions of pounds lost by the NHS by installing a defective computer system or the £25m
lost in giving free treatment to overseas visitors to UK. They have been quiet as a mouse because they can only see one thing and that is HPCCG accounts and
nothing else.

We also keep hearing it was taxpayers money, of course it was, but it was spent on the taxpayers, it did not go in anyone’s pocket as subtly implied.
No funds were misappropriated. All applications for funding were discussed by the committee along with the MPA Link Officer and the Police representative and checked that they met the criteria set by MPA, such as community cohesion, youth involvement, crime awareness and community engagement.
Only then approval was given. The successful applicants then sent their invoices to the Administrator, (an employee of the Council – Democratic Services)
who in turn forwarded to the Council’s accounts department for payment by cheque only or internal transfers. There was no wrong doing at all at any time.
Procedures laid down were followed. Everything was transparent. HPCCG did not receive any payment directly from MPA, it was sent directly into the Council’s
bank account. Council managed the HPCCG accounts. They issued cheques directly to the successful applicants. For this service HPCCG was paying a
composite charge of £60.00 per hour for the administrators work, admin expenses and managing of the accounts. HPCCG did not have a bank account nor
issued any cheques nor received any invoices. So how could there be any wrong doing when a third party was managing it?

The public statements by the Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Dal Babu OBE, and Cllr. Navin Shah GLA member for Harrow & Brent, that they had
checked and found there was no wrong doing in the accounts. Even Clive Lawton, Independent Member of MPA and Chair of the Community Engagement Committee of the MPA and Catherine Crawford Chief Executive of MPA said there was no wrong doing by HPCCG. After getting such solid assurances from
these people of integrity and of high standing, I do not see what more the detractors of HPCCG want?

For over 15 years no annual accounts were presented at the HPCCG’s AGMs, yet none of these people who are making such big a song and dance about it, opened
their mouths or made any complaint. How come now suddenly they have woken up from their Rip Van Winkle sleep? There is something fishy going on here,
either it is political, personal vendetta, vindictiveness or a conspiracy to bring to bring down a 30 years old organisation like HPCCG. It has done a sterling job for the
Harrow Community, in engaging with the diverse communities of Harrow and holding the Police to account. Now they are made out to be villains by a few individuals
who have personal axe to grind. This smells of collusion to deliberately undermine HPCCG.

There was no need to have a transitional body. The election of officers and the management committee should have been allowed to take place by the MPA at
the AGM on 23 January, 2012. Persons interested to serve HPCCG should have put forward their names and got democratically elected. They would definitely
have got a new chairman in place, as Sonoo Malkani had already announced she was stepping down as Chair. That would have solved the problem.
The new constitution of HPCCG suggested by MPA was approved last year. Is the transition body going to changes the HPCCG constitution now? All CPEGs
(Community Police Engagement Group)in the 32 boroughs of London have the same constitution as HPCCG has in place. So what are they going to do?

To fill in the vacuum that has now been created with nothing to replace HPCCG, I suggest the HPCCG meeting that was scheduled to take place on 19 March, 2012 be used to elect new officers and committee members of the new CPEG. This will save time and money of the transition body. They will not have to put in any work in setting up a new body and then call for a new election. The structure is already present. MPA link officer could not even give a date when the new body will be in place. The new CPEG’s constitution will be the same as the current HPCCG’s. So why all this unnecessary long procedure of setting up a new body.

The whole question of a transitional body and then setting up a new body in Harrow is a charade.

Baldev Sharma
Vice-Chair
HPCCG

I am really concerned that there will be no cover for forth coming events. I would suggest that perhaps if it cannot be sorted that another council should merg with Harrow, until all the partys involved can come up with a solution. Or an interim committee,which will oversee and perhaps take it on.
This is serious, not to be taken without looking to the future.

Boring, lets get on with real issues and not with a lot of hot air and self importance.

These meetings did nothing and were nothing more than a talking shop. How this group managed to spend 50k per year is beyond me. Thank god they are gone.