head in the sand

The role of the board

The board is the principal decision-making body of an organisation. The board's non-executive directors take decisions about the organisation's strategic direction and have oversight of its activities.

In May 2021 following concerns raised and duly ignored by Paul Dolan CEO an email was sent to all board members outlining concerns of fraudulent activity by one of their main contractors ESH Construction.

All board members have a fiduciary duty to residents as well as a duty of care to prevent any financial abuse and a professional responsibility in this matter.

 

14.2. Brydon Report 2019 Directors’ obligations
14.2.1 “the extent to which fraud can be detected is dependent on the quality and timeliness of management reporting, and the openness of the corporate culture”

146. management and the Board are responsible for preventing and detecting fraud

They chose to ignore genuine allegations of fraudulent invoicing.

composition of the board Accent Housing board members
email to the board of Accent Housing

The allegations could not have been made more succinctly than in the email sent 21st May, 2021 to every board member including the chair, Tom Miskell.

Full email;

extract from email to board of Accent Housing

'As a board you have consistently failed to provide a system of governance at Accent Housing that protects residents from financial abuse.'

'You have a repair and maintenance contract with ESH construction which was entered into in 2017. Going through the material presented under the section 22 request I can state that;'

...'every invoice presented by ESH construction for the maintenance/repairs to Lambert Court for that year was either fraudulent or incorrect.'

'I have asked the following questions of Darren Whitfield, Robert Bloom and Kevin White;'

'Can Accent provide any evidence that any work invoiced at Lambert Court by ESH Construction has;

- Been undertaken

- The correct schedule of rates was applied.

- The quality of work was of a reasonable standard.

In almost 6 months no reply has been received from any party to provide evidence to the fact.

I believe that every invoice presented since the introduction of the contract with ESH cannot be verified.

I have requested invoices from ESH and the SOR that they employ. This has been withheld.'

'Your main contractor for the NE region ESH construction submits fraudulent invoices.

They consistently employ the incorrect schedule of rates resulting in inflated charges to Lambert Court. Any work they undertake is well below standard.

You do not have a system in place that can track these invoices, verify, if indeed, any work has been undertaken, justify costs or explain why they were raised. I am aware that this is not specific to Lambert Court but occurs on other estates.

You provide no accountability to residents and there is no transparency in information presented.'

Accent Housing ignored the issue, refused to return emails and declared the matter over. A retirement community were forced to take action through the First Tier Tribunal where every accusation stated above was validated by the judge.

 

 

Executives