This in from UKIP prospective parliamentary candidate in the 2015 election. Ed
Iain McKie, the UKIP Parliamentary Candidate for the Isle of Wight, has urged former Isle of Wight Council leader and Independent candidate Ian Stephens to address the Council’s recent ‘clerical error’ which led to a missing £517,878.
The lottery-sized payment was transferred to PFI contractor Pihl UK for work on the Cowes Enterprise College – after the company had already gone into administration.
Not ‘dealt with internally’
So far no-one from the Council appears to have taken responsibility publicly with the matter having been dealt with ‘internally’. McKie is unconvinced by the wall of silence.
McKie asks,
“Do they really expect us to believe that a book-keeper is capable of sending payments in excess of half a million pounds, without the authorisation of a Senior Official?
“At a time when many honest, hard-working council staff are facing potential redundancies, the people getting paid the big bucks should stand up and be counted! Islanders deserve greater transparency from Council officers and greater accountability from their councillors.”
Finger of blame
McKie is clearly pointing the finger of blame at Ian Stephens, who recently stepped down as Leader of the Council, but appeared to have little confidence in his colleagues, suggesting there were not “many people in this room with the brains to take on the job” (of Leader).
Absence of MP
McKie, currently ranked amongst the top fifteen most likely winners for UKIP at the general election, agrees.
“This is a failure at the executive level, a failure of scrutiny by the Stephens-led Council, and a failure by the absence of our MP. The Isle of Wight deserves better!”
McKie has embarked on an Island-wide series of public meetings, and with odds of a UKIP victory on the Island as low as 7/2, he will clearly be the main rival to Turner in May.
Image: ilovememphis under CC BY 2.0
