Haringey criticised over gifts

Staff at a Labour-run town hall have been criticised by fraud watchdogs for taking gifts such as cash, CD players and champagne as "hospitality".

A District Auditor's report has found that Haringey council employees accepted such gifts without senior officers making checks to ensure that no " backhanders" or corruption were involved.

Many of those who received the gifts are thought to have been officers involved in licensing and planning decisions - areas considered highly susceptible to bribery.

Yet the council's internal checkingprocedures have proved so lax that it has no idea exactly how much each gift was worth or how many were received.

Haringey's Conservative leader Peter Forrest said: "This report shows a disgraceful and staggeringly inept approach towards stamping out graft which smacks of an 'anything goes' culture."

The report said many staff were unaware of the council's rules on hospitality, which generally frown on the acceptance of gifts in most circumstances beyond minor items such as desk calendars and diaries. Any gift that could be seen as a potential blandishment is supposed to be automatically reported to senior officers.

Some of the council's departments did not even have hospitality registers, while entries of gifts in other registers that should have been scrutinised by bosses had not been.

The council is now taking steps to tighten procedures. Chief executive David Warwick said: "There is absolutely no suggestion of any improper practice, and there is no culture of gifts or hospitality within Haringey."