Why Journalism Matters
Woeful tales of the sunshine millionaire believed to have cheated UK taxpayers. RSF's latest photo album in aid of press freedom and Nigeria's main man for undercover investigations.
5 minute read
The biggest ever scandal involving a UK local council uncovered by investigative journalism
It all started with a casual discovery by a curious investigative journalist from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism based in London.
By chance, Local Bureau reporter Gareth Davies discovered that a regional authority, Thurrock Council had posted an ‘unusually large figure [of expenditure] on an obscure government spreadsheet’ almost four years ago. He simply wanted to know why this had happened and what the money had been spent on and without his persistence this may never have come to light.
After four years of dogged forensic investigation, Freedom of Information requests and access to unpublished financial reports, the largest financial scandal ever to engulf a local council in the UK was revealed. It’s a tale of greed, incompetence and secrecy that is breathtaking to behold in a modern democratic state.
Effectively bankrupt
It has made Thurrock Council in Essex, east of London effectively bankrupt, with debts totalling £1.5 billion(USD$1.92 billion). This will ultimately affect all taxpayers in the UK as the council is already requesting more than £182 million from the central government for this financial year alone, with the prospect of much more in subsequent years.
Thurrock has already agreed to raise its local council tax by almost 10 per cent, and all but essential services will have to be cut back.
Davies has just published the latest update on this scandal.
He writes in explanation: “It ended in a national exposé, broadcast on BBC Panorama this week, about how Thurrock council was seemingly cheated out of £130m by the rogue businessman Liam Kavanagh.
“The story features a private jet, a small armoury of rifles and a million-pound diamond-encrusted watch – all paid for with public funds. As the man himself would say, the story and how this all came about is ‘insane’.”
In September 2019 Davies discovered that Thurrock had borrowed an ‘eye-watering’ £1 billion (USD$1.27 billion) from other regional councils. These were authorised by council Chief Financial Officer Sean Clark who has since resigned.
“…My immediate question was why. It turns out they had invested in a group of solar farms run by a company called Rockfire run by Kavanagh.
“Clark and Thurrock then spent three years fighting our Freedom of Information requests inquiring about deals the public, and even most elected officials, had been told nothing about. By the time they were ordered to hand over the details, the council was months away from going bust.”
No explanations
With no explanations forthcoming from those directly responsible, Davies has spent years building up relationships with confidential sources who might be able to provide some answers.
“It took years to build enough trust to get the evidence we needed. What we eventually got our hands on proved that Kavanagh and his businesses had misled Thurrock over the value of his solar farms. It also proved that he then spent tens of millions in taxpayers’ money on a huge country estate, a yacht and a fleet of supercars.”
It was only this year that the investigation got a lucky breakthrough. Davies was able to find unpublished financial records which showed that Thurrock Council paying directly into accounts that were funding Kavanagh’s luxury lifestyle, proving that his earlier denials were lies.
“I also came into possession of an email sent by Kavanagh instructing one of his directors to give Thurrock an inflated value of his solar farms. He even brushed off the prospect of Thurrock losing money as a result. The council has since been effectively declared bankrupt, in large part due to these deals.”
Kavanagh, who reportedly no longer lives in the UK, denies misleading the council and offered the opinion that he was not responsible for the council’s investment decisions.
Amazingly he also claimed that the terms of his agreements with the council meant ‘his businesses were free to spend the money invested as they pleased’.
Sean Clark has avoided being interviewed or giving any evidence about these deals. When the BBC’s Panorama programme tracked him down while walking his dog, he lowered his head and walked away without comment.
So far there have been no answers forthcoming about how Thurrock Council (still led by the ruling Conservative Party after local elections in May this year) will recoup its lost money and what action will be taken against those responsible.
Although this alleged fraud is believed to be the biggest ever perpetrated against a local council in the UK, other regional councils such as Woking, Slough and Croydon have also had to stop ‘all non-essential spending' after losing public money on risky investments’ according to a BBC report.
Huge sums recklessly
Those wondering why a regional council was allowed to invest these huge sums so recklessly may be surprised to learn that the national body that would have prevented this from happening—the National Audit Commission—was abolished in 2015. Thurrock Council started investing with Rockfire the following year.
Thurrock Council is estimated to have lost at least £200 million ($USD255million) on its investments.
So far no one has been charged or censured in any way for this criminal mishandling of public funds which has left Thurrock and ultimately UK taxpayers picking up the bill. For full details click on the links below.
And so far there has only been one apology: issued by the present Thurrock council leader Andrew Jeffries that he was “deeply sorry for the shocking and unacceptable failings of the past”.
Reference
BBC Panorama programme on Thurrock Council
TBIJ: the tale of the sunshine millionaire
3 minute read
Witnessing the magic and mystery of the oceans in RSF’s latest photo album
Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders) has scored another great success with its latest photo album, Mer (sea) which visually documents the life of the oceans, past and present. The breathtaking phenomena of the waves and storms that make the seas the most dynamic environment on the planet are there, along with the threats and challenges for the creatures who live in the ocean, as well as the humans whose livelihoods depend on it.
On its website RSF describes mer as an ‘ode to the beauty and fragility of the sea, seen by the greatest photographers of yesterday and today’.
“Wild and powerful, threatened and fragile, a place of subsistence and pleasure for humans and a refuge for biodiversity, the many facets of the sea are revealed, in particular through the lens of Brassaï, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Anita Conti , Robert Doisneau, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Steve McCurry, Sarah Moon, Vincent Munier, Paul Nicklen, Sebastião Salgado and many more!”
The coelecanth
The cover photograph features a close up of the coelacanth, one of the rarest and oldest of fish species whose ancestors swam the depths 400 million years ago. This picture was taken by noted naturalist, diver and ocean photographer Laurent Ballesta whose work was the subject of an earlier RSF photo album.
In his introduction RSF General secretary Christophe Deloire draws a comparison between the ocean and the digital information environment that surrounds us.
“The digital world is a sea of its own, an ocean of technology from the shallows to the deep state, with its small fry and sharks. You can swim in it, and you can drown in it. We surf it on waves of curiosity and intelligence, or flounder in the breakers of conspiracy and hatred.
“…But to complete the metaphor where would Reporters without Borders be without the global crew of good-willed, talented people who support us in our assignments, onshore and offshore alike? So let us pay homage here to the 70-plus photographers (and their heirs) who, in this exceptional album have given us a glimpse of what lies beyond every horizon on the largest space on Earth.”
The album can be ordered from the RSF website for delivery worldwide and is available in many major retail outlets in France.
Reference
3 minute read
Fisayo Soyombo: the expert on going undercover in Nigeria
Nigeria is a country with a reputation for bribery and corruption, but is perhaps less known for its investigative journalism.
The west African country,which has considerable oil wealth, is rated 24 out of 100 on the Transparency International corruption index, putting it within the worst 25% of the world’s countries. And 44% of public service users say they have paid a bribe in the last 12 months.
Leading investigative journalist
Facing up to that situation is Fisayo Soyombo, one of the country’s leading investigative journalists who has become well known for going undercover to get to the heart of a story.
This summer he spoke about his experiences at the Summer Conference of the Centre for Investigative Journalism. The conference was reported on by the Global Investigative Journalism Network and can be read on their website.
He has gone undercover to report on Boko Haram, Nigerian corruption at the border, problems at mortuaries, abuses at prisons, and from inside the country’s police stations.
“Trust me: a Nigerian prison is not where you want to spend a few hours. A Nigerian police cell is not where you want to spend 30 minutes. I was in prison for eight days,” he told the conference.
“I know that undercover reporting is controversial…[but] if you are reporting on a Nigerian hospital or a person with mental health issues? How do you know what it’s like if you don’t go in?” he asked.
When something is wrong
“When is it justified? When you know something is wrong and you need hard evidence. When you need visual evidence. You want to feel what they feel to put out the story that they deserve.”
The dangers that challenge him range from denials by those involved in the story to harassment, bodily harm, psychological trauma and even death threats.
But he is very certain that it’s worth it.
“Here’s why: a story I wrote about a soldier [injured fighting Boko Haram] the army finally gave him a prosthesis. He could walk again. After my story, he got an artificial leg.
“For me as an investigative journalist, I don’t get impact for nine investigations, but if I get it for my tenth, it’s enough.”
In 2019 he feigned being a criminal so as to get behind the scenes of the criminal justice system, reporting on it for the Cable News and Views website. He spent five days in a police cell and eight inside Ikoyi prison .
While there he witnessed the person who ‘complained’ that Soyombo had attempted to defraud him out of money for a car purchase haggling over a bribe to get the police to take on the case. They settled on a price of N1,000. that he allegedly owed for a car purchase. The complainant ended up haggling over how paying a bribe to the police for taking the case on.
“The complainant was already registering the case with a policewoman… and soon after they were haggling over the fees. Chigozie Odo, the policewoman, had rejected his offer of N500. After some five minutes of talking, he handed her a N1,000 note ($USD1.27). Immediately the money touched her hand, Odo turned on me: “Look at you. Fine boy like you; just look at yourself. Instead make you go find better work, you dey defraud people. Oya, come here!”
You can read about Soyombo’s many exploits and investigations on his website, link below.
Reference
GIJN CIJ Summer Conference: going undercover.
Fisayo Soyombo website investigations
The Cable: undercover report on police corruption
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