Council chief denies knowledge of repairs firm's 13,000 dodgy jobs dosier

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A council boss has been urged to sever ties with a repairs firm after it was found to have fudged its figures to make its performance look better.An investigation into the claims, first reported by the Sunday Mail, revealed that Mears LLP had changed the completion dates on more than 13,000 repair jobs across North Lanarkshire over the last two years.It allowed them to meet performance targets set by the council and look like they were fixing problems in homes and buildings faster than they actually were.Des Murray, chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council, has denied any knowledge of the practice which Mears has now admitted was “long-standing” and had “become custom and practice over a number of years.”Investigators also said other council staff were unaware of the practice in their audit report published last week.This is despite internal emails showing a senior council official questioning Mears managing director Willie Docherty on the performance data in February 2022.The Sunday Mail has also learned that Murray met with the Mears boss at least three times in the six months after these concerns were first raised but he claims the issues were never discussed.A council spokesman said: “The audit report makes clear that no member of council staff was aware of the unilateral alteration of some completion dates by Mears staff.“The chief executive routinely meets a range of stakeholders to discuss strategic issues.“In the case of Mears at that time, these discussions focused on the council’s Ukrainian resettlement programme, as well as the delivery of essential infrastructure for elections and some elements of Covid recovery.“There was no discussion between the chief executive and any Mears representative the issues