Otterpool Park is where the Council wish to build up to 10,000 homes.
Ever since we first mentioned the name John Bunnett on our blog, a growing number of sources, both ex-employees and current employees of Thanet District Council (TDC) have been in contact with the Shepwayvox team. Many have wanted to unburden themselves about the goings-on at Thanet while John was Deputy Chief Exec.
The sources started off as a trickle after we first blogged about him. They then became a steady flow, before becoming a torrent. All the sources informed us of two things.
After John moved on that’s when the overtime issue stopped, according to the East Kent Audit Partnership Report to TDC’s Audit and Governance Committee on the 28th Sept 2010, which states:
Management can place Limited Assurance on the controls in place during the majority of the period audited between April 2007 and Late 2009 however the changes which have already been implemented by Corporate Management Team in this area have had a significant impact and accordingly the assurance level is considered to have risen to Reasonable by the end of the period of the audit (May 2010).
The overtime granting and payment approval procedures showed signs of complacency and a number of controls did not appear to work as envisaged. Management will need to remind all officers of the correct rules governing the payment of overtime and take positive action to correct the slack approach to recording correct information on each claim.
Much of the overtime was paper overtime sources have confirmed. A steady stream of sources have stated that double-time was paid to persons while on holiday in America. Other sources have made it clear double time on Saturday was paid and nobody turned up to do the work, but all were paid. This say the growing chorus of sources was all sanctioned by John Bunnett.
The second issue a vast majority of the sources spoke to us about was John sanctioning the purchase of a Mitsubishi Shogun (pictured) for a worker by the name of Andrew Barnes, more commonly known as Barney, from the public purse.
Barney worked in the Grounds maintenance department. The purchase of the Shogun did NOT go through proper procurement channels, according to more than a dozen sources. This begs the question about the P11 D form too. Now as we said at the beginning, John is in charge of a £100 million pound budget and with his track record, Cllrs and Folkestone & Hythe District Council should be very concerned.
However, it doesn’t stop there. We understand from sources inside the Council building that John (pictured below left) informed developers about who would be developing the land at Biggins Wood. John it would appear is in the habit of sanctioning ultra vires payments and disclosing confidential information to developers. Now perhaps you might understand why we are concerned.
If that wasn’t enough, John’s No 2, Andy Jarrett, (pictured above right), was let go by the Council in 2007 due to various improprieties with developers sources inside and outside the building have reliably informed us. When Andy returned to the Council there was a sharp intake of breath by those who were there when Andy was let go thirteen years ago.
If you have information regarding John “buy me a car” Bunnett while he was at Ashford Borough Council, or even Folkestone & Hythe District Council doing anything untoward, please do drop us a line at shepwayvox[at]riseup[dot]net. The same goes for Andy as well. Birds of a feather flock together so they say.
We never reveal our sources. Look forward to hearing from you.
