{"id":165961,"date":"2025-06-07T21:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T21:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165961\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T21:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T21:22:14","slug":"union-at-centre-of-birmingham-bin-strike-had-pervasive-fraud-environment-leaked-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165961\/","title":{"rendered":"Union at centre of Birmingham bin strike had ‘pervasive fraud environment’ – leaked report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audit ordered by boss Sharon Graham amid scrutiny around construction of hotel and conference centre in the cityUnite’s hotel and conference centre development in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

The union at the centre of Birmingham’s crippling bin strike had a \u201cpervasive fraud environment\u201d, a leaked auditors\u2019 report has concluded.<\/p>\n

Global tax advisory firm BDO found there had been a culture at Unite that \u201cdid not challenge the appropriateness of transactions\u201d and failed to ensure appropriate financial reporting.<\/p>\n

It concluded \u201cdominant personalities and a weak control environment facilitated opportunities to commit fraud\u201d at the union.<\/p>\n

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The audit was ordered by general secretary Sharon Graham shortly after she entered her role in 2021 amid questions about accounting and spending on building a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Its findings were presented to the union\u2019s executive council on Friday.<\/p>\n

Unite said the probe uncovered a \u00a353.8 million \u201cimpairment\u201d related to the difference between the original valuation of the Birmingham project used to calculate the \u201cbook value\u201d by the auditors at the time, and the real value.<\/p>\n

The BDO report also said there had been \u201cunusual relationships\u201d between former senior staff and Unite\u2019s customers and suppliers, according to the BBC<\/a> which obtained a copy of the 35-page document ahead of its publication.<\/p>\n

In response, Ms Graham, who has pledged to strengthen internal governance practices, said: \u201cOn behalf of Unite\u2019s 1.2 million-plus members, I promised on my election that I would uncover the truth about historic alleged corruption related to the Birmingham hotel project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process has quite frankly been an ugly one, where I have endured attacks and smears from those with much to lose, but they have not deterred me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe re-audit is in its final stages and as we move to completion, I will ensure steps are taken so that this can never happen again and we have already started the process of getting our money back.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last three years of my leadership, I have refocused our union on to the jobs, pay and conditions of our members and we have secured a union that is financially strong and able to fight for workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unite members in Birmingham’s refuse teams have been on an all-out strike since March over pay cut and job loss fears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audit ordered by boss Sharon Graham amid scrutiny around construction of hotel and conference centre in the cityUnite’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,7831,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-165961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-bin-strike","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114644185723115183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}