Government audit of Tower Hamlets finances will report findings tomorrow
Mayor Lutfur Rahman - Credit: Archant
Auditors who carried out a government-backed inspection of Tower Hamlets Council’s finances for alleged “fraud and financial mismanagement” will release their findings tomorrow.
Local government secretary Eric Pickles - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
The report from city firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will be published at 9.30am on November 4 – seven months to the day since it was launched – the government has confirmed.
This written report will be followed by an oral response from local government secretary Eric Pickles to the House of Commons at 12.30pm.
The auditors have spent months trailing through council documents and computers and interviewing council employees, including the Mayor, at the cost of an estimated £1million.
The contents of the report are likely to have far-reaching consequences for politics in Tower Hamlets.
PwC descended on the Town Hall on April 4 three days after a BBC Panorama broadcast accusing Mayor Lutfur Rahman of favouritism in his grant allocations and of using public funds for self-promotion.
The Mayor denied all wrongdoing and accused the programme-makers of political bias and racism.
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He was re-elected for a second term as Mayor a few weeks later on May 22.
Read more:
Mayor accused at High Court of using ‘spiritual influence’ for re-election
Revealed: Mayor’s letters in bid to stop Panorama on Tower Hamlets
