Is there no accountability within Nottingham City Council? Does no-one ever actually have to answer for their actions?

Earlier in the year, Councillor Mohammed Aslam was accused of racial and sexual discrimination by the then Chief Executive of Nottingham Black Partnership, Aneela Asim, yet no proper investigation seems to have taken place into these allegations and no action appears to have been taken against Councillor Aslam.

Then, just a few weeks ago, Councillor Hassan Ahmed was found to have failed to declare an interest in a number of organisations he was involved in, many of  which had received support from Nottingham City Council and which represented a genuine conflict with his role as a portfolio holder. At the time, local MP Alan Simpson said: “The public expects that those in office behave in a transparent and accountable way. This permeates every level of governance.”

Now it has been revealed that the City Council could lose anything between £5m and £19m of the £41m invested in Icelandic banks, before the global financial crisis put those investments at risk. It has since been proved that the City Council acted against expert advice that warned of the potential dangers of investing in Iceland.

I’m sure once again, that no-one will have to account for this loss, no-one will be proved to have been negligent and we won’t be seeing any sackings or resignations as a result. Indeed, the portfolio holder for resources, Deputy Council Leader Graham Chapman, is already playing down the scale of the losses and insisting that money will ‘trickle back’ to the city.

All of which could prompt one to ask exactly what a Nottingham City councillor would have to do to actually get even a rap on the knuckles, let alone any proper disciplinary action. One could also legitimately ask just how many of our elected representatives have any honour, self-respect or proper sense of civic duty.

You might like to consider these questions and put your answers on a ballot paper at the next City Council elections.