Mike Freer - What is Leadership?

	leader • noun 1 a person or thing that leads. 2 a person or thing that is the most successful or advanced in a particular area. 3 the principal player in a music group. 4 Brit. a leading article in a newspaper. 5 (also Leader of the House) Brit. a member of the government officially responsible for initiating business in Parliament. 6 a short strip of non-functioning material at each end of a reel of film or recording tape for connection to the spool.

Definition

leadership
noun [U]
1 the set of characteristics that make a good leader:
What the company lacks is leadership.
He lacks leadership qualities/skills.

2 the position or fact of being the leader:
The group flourished under her firm leadership.
R&M gained market leadership (= sold more goods than other companies) by selling products that were of superior quality.

3 the leadership the person or people in charge of an organization:
There is growing discontent with the leadership.
The election for the leadership of the council will take place on Tuesday.


I thought before I started to analyse Mike Freer's statement today, about the lost Icelandic cash, I'd just check the dictionary definitions of Leader and Leadership. The definition of Leader is from the Oxford Dictionary and the Definition of Leadership is from the Cambridge version.

Let me just point you to a blog I did in October, when the Council had an emergency debate on the crisis.

http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2008/10/advisers-advise-leaders-lead-so-give.html

When it comes down to it, the issue in Barnet is Leadership. Yesterday Mike Freer issued the following statement :-

Despite previous assurances from Barnet Council Officers that correct treasury management controls were applied to Icelandic deposits, it has now come to light that in fact this was not the case. On Monday 9th March I was presented with a scrutiny working group report which makes clear that officers did not in fact follow the correct procedures despite having repeatedly told me both verbally and in writing that they had done so.

The lead officer responsible for this failure resigned his post prior to the scrutiny meeting on Monday 9th March and I have now written formally to the Chief Executive asking for a full investigation into how I as Leader of the Council was misled by officers in this matter.

An external investigation will be carried out to identify why our external auditors did not pick up these issues in their previous audit work. I would like however to reassure residents that at this point the Icelandic deposits remain frozen by the administrators of the two banks involved and discussions around the return of this money remain positive and ongoing.

Council Leader Freer is also the chairman of the Resource management committee. He gets a responsibility allowance for this. Now I ask this question - where was the leadership and where is the responsibility. Leadership is all about ensuring that those who work for you know what they are meant to be doing. They should know that when things go wrong, you as leader will immediately get to the bottom of things. I was at an Emergency Council meeting last year, where Mike Freer resisted calls for the Icelandic investments to be investigated externally. Five months have since been lost. Five months where incompetence has flourished. Did Mike Freer never think to ask his officers "Prove it, show me the evidence"?

Was the wrongdoing uncovered by the man who manages the resources? No. It was uncovered by the scrutiny committee. Freer could have lead this process, he could have set up a special audit when the problems came to light - after all £27.4 Million is a huge sum. He could have said to his Council Officers "Come clean now, because you are being investigated. If you don't you will be sacked with no pay for gross misconduct".

He did none of these things. When the Council was run by a Labour/Liberal administration, Mike Freer used to monster his opponents - "Where is the Leadership? Where does the Buck stop?". That was how he made his name. He was a ruthless tormentor of various Labour and Lib Dem Cabinet members. The Tories made Mike Freer leader as he claimed that he'd take responsibility. He claimed that the buck stopped with him. He claimed he was a tough Thatcherite Leader. You';ve read his statement. Where is the Leadership, where does the buck stop?

Mike Freer - it is high time you put into practise what you used to preach in opposition. Resign