17 July (Part 1) - Nice work if you can get it
An
old theme on this website was that councillors and senior staff use the council
for networking opportunities designed to line their own pockets, a subject
that has been neglected of late, but an example crawled out of the woodwork
while researching
the Rhys Lawrie story.
That research led me to
the C4EO website on which Absalom as Director of Children’s Services was
telling her peers that she had been “struck by the commitment and quality of
work which already exists in the sector” at the very moment that Rhys Lawrie was
being ignored by her department, which for irony takes some beating, but that is not today’ story…
Absalom left Bexley council two months after Rhys was killed and the council was reluctant
to talk about whether or not there was a golden goodbye but there was
speculation that it may have been over £100k.
She then fell into the same job at Redbridge in the traditional manner of failed public servants.
Throughout her time at Bexley, Deborah Absalom was a Director of
a company called 15Billion and guess what it does - provides educational
services to local authorities. Which local authorities? Bexley and Redbridge of
course. (Currently nine boroughs in total.)
Bexley’s
over £500 expenditure list reveals that money has been regularly going to
15Billion. £45,000 in the last available month, various sums all the way back to
when ‘over £500’ started.
Note: Ms. Absalom also runs her own company. Deborah Absalom Ltd.
Somebody who ought to know reported that Absalom got
her job in Redbridge because its CEO is an old Bexley man. I can find no
evidence of that. Does anyone know better? (See later blog.)