Not just weak people. Filling up your employee numbers to suit a certain political criteria. Without wondering if they can actually do the job for the masses.

I think some on the council had fingers in the pie.

[Link]

It's not just Croydon Council, Lewisham tried to CP the land around Millwall for a major re-development. The favoured company was an offshore pop up with zero history and unknown owners. However it was widely believed that the mayor's brother was involved. Anyway thanks to Millwall supporters and a reporter from the Guardian the whole sorry mess was exposed for what it was.

And yes the Tories are just as bad at dealing out public money to their mates.

The Lewisham council fiasco does raise one issues. How can it possibly be right that public money can be offered to a company whose owners are hidden. The rules most change we have to have transparency.

One more point

I spent all my career in the public sector, is it a circus? Probably. Are there too many clowns? Certainly at Senior Management level, I do believe lower down the chain get a raw deal from the media and public, as they are lumped together with Management. Gold plated pension? Certainly not me and again Senior Managers undoubtably. You would be surprised how low the average PS pension is

One of the major issues arising from this financial mess is the lack of scrutiny by councillors, who effectively acted as cheerleaders for those such as Tony Newman and Paul Scott. And this includes the new head of the council, Hamida Ali. The quality of councillors varies enormously, both in terms of capability and commitment to the role. Local government is now a complex operation but the councillors are often ill equipped to challenge decisions and the use of patronage by means of allowances ties them into the decisions made at the top. Quite frankly, in this era of gesture politics, they should all give back the allowances they have received in recent years. They simply haven't been up to the job.

Once upon a time local businessmen joined the masons and became friends with local council officials which is how they got the plum contracts, back handers etc.

Today that still goes on and you hear stories how ethnic groups gets jobs in key council departments such as housing and then recruit and promote their friends, relatives etc until they have a power base.

Meet the new boss same as the old boss.

One more point

There was a lot of conflict of interest going on, especially between Scott, Newman and Lacey when it came to the development schemes and BXB

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.