Corruption At Brent Irish Centre

EDM number 334 in 1994-95, proposed by Ken Livingstone on 10/01/1995.

That this House notes with concern the endemic corrupt practices at the Brent Irish Centre orchestrated by the centre's secretary, Mr Brendan Mulkere, in particular the misuse of the ú137,000 capital grant awarded by Brent in 1991 as its contribution towards total building costs which BICCA claimed would reach ú231,000 although the lowest tender was for ú134,584 and the site agent and architect both estimated actual expenditure to have been between ú140,000 and ú150,000 and therefore finds it inexplicable that BICCA's report to the Council claimed that ú205,575 was spent on this work; further notes that a report to the BICCA AGM on 29th May 1992 specified further building works required at the Irish Centre totalling ú120,000 yet in a request to the Council on 23rd June 1992 BICCA asked for a capital grant of ú180,000 to pay for this work; expresses its grave concern that a personal loan requested by Mr Brendan Mulkere from the builders was eventually repaid with ú8,477.29 taken directly from BICCA funds; and finally calls on all concerned to resolve these problems rapidly so that the future of the Irish Centre is assured and to this end support the call for a new non-partisan steering committee including the honourable Members for Brent North and East and representatives of the Church to oversee a properly constituted AGM and the election of a new management committee able to restore public confidence in the Irish Centre.

This motion has been signed by a total of 2 MPs.