Not just Incompetence but allegations of actual Corruption at the Home Office - why is Tony McNulty still a Home Office Minister ?
Today's Observer story which alleges not just NuLabour sleaze but actual corruption in the Home Office,
Cash for asylum scandal hits ReidBlow to Home Secretary as police investigate widespread racket claims
Mark Townsend and Jamie Doward
Sunday June 4, 2006
The ObserverPolice are investigating dozens of allegations relating to a large-scale 'cash-for-asylum' racket among Home Office immigration officials, The Observer can reveal.
Scotland Yard officers seconded to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's security and anti-corruption unit have revealed they are holding inquiries into a series of claims that government officials are accepting a 'going rate' of up to £4,000 in return for residency status.
In the first indication of the extent of possible criminality among Home Office immigration staff, one Metropolitan Police officer described levels of corruption among elements of IND staff as 'endemic'. The allegations come two weeks after The Observer revealed the case of a senior IND official who was offering asylum to a Zimbabwean teenager in return for sexual favours.
Officers are currently conducting around 50 'live investigations' relating to corruption allegations involving Home Office staff, a proportion of which involve asylum applicants buying residency status to remain in Britain. So far this year alone, six IND staff have been dismissed for giving applicants 'leave to remain' status in the UK without being able to justify their decision to investigating officers.
Other recent cases include an Eritrean man who was working for the Home Office as a contractor but was convicted after police discovered he had bought a fake passport from 'a man in a pub'. Another government employee stole several thousand pounds worth of support tokens designated for asylum seekers. 'We're firing people left right and centre,' said an officer seconded to the IND unit, which is dedicated to eradicating corruption within the immigration system.
[...]
This story surely must cast further doubts on the competence of Tony McNulty, who was, incedibly, moved sideways to Policing, Security and Public Order, but not fired, as a Minister of State when he was in charge of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
McNulty's previous, supposed "investigation" of the allegations in The Sun about similar goings on at Lunar House in Croydon, back in January.
The offical report/whitewash (.pdf) published in March admitted to some "unprofessional" staff conduct, but also hinted at insecure computer login practices, insufficient audit trails with the Warning Index (WI) and Casework Information Database (CID) computer systems, There were also insuffcient actual computer terminals at the fron line desks dealing with applicants, so that security and immigration checks were skipped during busy periods etc.
Why is Tony McNulty still a Home Office Minister ? Is he going to screw up the Police services in the same way as he allowed the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to disintegrate ? Perhaps he will seek to blame Des Browne, his predecessor as Immigrarion Minister, who went to secure his career under a possible Gordon Brown premiership as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but now seems to be in line for the perk of a "Grace and Favour" apartment in Admiralty House, now that he is Minister for Defence.
Or will Home Secretary John Reid now distract media attention from McNulty's sins of ommission and incompetence, by "discovering" a whole series of scandals in the Policing, Security and Public Order area of the Home Office, which were down to the former Minister (not counting the 2 week stint by Liam Byrne, before he swapped roles with Tony McNulty), namely the ultra smug NuLabour political commissar Hazel Blears, and, of course, former Home Secretaries Clarke, Blunkett and Straw ?