UKIP Uncovered

UKIP Uncovered
What motivates the leaders of the United Kingdom Independence Party?

Monday, October 27, 2003

Proof Positive

We have received a copy of an e-mail regarding the mishandling of donations and dubious fund-raising practises organised by Nigel Farage MEP concerning a rogue operation in Ashford.

The following explanatory comments preceded the internet posting:-

1. It was minuted several times at NEC meetings that Ashford was a South East operation - so Nigel continually denied the NEC financial info on it.

2. There are only days to get the relevant info out of Nigel on accounts to comply with PPERA - again his propensity for risk taking could cause great harm to UKIP and the wider anti EU cause.

3. It is an especially serious matter, as Ashford is not an official party cost center. It is clearly a rogue operation.

4. As a cost center not connected with the party, it has, of course, no right to party data and therefore Data Protection implications come into play. The party cannot just give its data to Nigel Farage Inc or to anyone else for that matter.

5. What is even more serious is that national data is being used, so this is an unaccountable national operation which has just donated £10,000 to Nigel's South East campaign (on his admission).

The e-mail from the Party Treasurer to the members of the NEC and South East Regional Committee is fairly lengthy but the main points are:-

I am advised that the South East Regional Committee has resolved to disassociate itself from the Ashford Telesales operation at it's committee meeting of Friday,17th October 2003. This has important consequences under the Political Parties Elections and Referendum Act 2.
.....
I have received a copy of the following correspondence from the Treasurer, of the South East Region. "It must be stressed, however, that the Ashford office has been set-up by Nigel and others without any discussion, consultation, approval or acceptance in any official capacity by the SE Region committee to date.
....
The South East Regional Committee has decided to no longer take responsibility for the Ashford telesales operation.

As a consequence I have no option but to carry out my duties as National Treasurer under PPERA, and immediately take on direct responsibility for reporting activities and ensuring compliance of PPERA, of the Ashford telesales operation through Central Office.

After further details as to how the rogue operation is to be brought within proper party and regulatory control, the Treasurer concludes with these points:-

Two further issues of profit sharing and reporting need clarification now that we know that the operation is no longer part of the South East region as follows:

1. Although no written plan of budget of the Ashford operation was
produced to the NEC the NEC was told that **** would underwrite losses for the first three months. We were also told by Nigel Farage that he would underwrite losses personally.

We must establish a clear understanding and agreement for any profits and losses and ownership of the Ashford operation. We need to know if profits are generated from the scheme who exactly will receive the benefit and by the same token if there are losses who will be responsible. We must also agree the profit sharing formulae if the operation is to continue to use national data gathered in the UKIP name rather than just South East data.
We must consider if Central Office should be burdened with liabilities of the Ashford telesales department unless it is also receiving the profits.

If XXXX and Nigel Farage continue to take responsibility for the operation and remain the signatories to the bank account for Ashford telesales, it is important that the Party receives a written agreement from them, in which they agree to indemnify the Party from any losses, consequential losses or other liabilities incurred by the Ashford operation, or give a similar written undertaking acceptable to the NEC. A detail to consider is whether the operation should be converted into a limited company.

2. Accounts from the Ashford telesales operation should also be prepared for the NEC in future on a monthly basis so that we can establish the effectiveness of the operation. As the operation is using data collected nationally from UKIP, we have a duty on the NEC to receive reports and in turn report to membership. This is in addition to the Party Treasurer's responsibility of reporting to the Electoral Commission. In the September NEC meeting Nigel Farage agreed to supply accounts although none as yet have been produced.

Considering the gobbledegook, reproduced on this blog eight days ago, put out by the Party Chairman David Lott in a ludicrous attempt to justify the basis of the Ashford office, we imagine that following these disclosures his resignation is now on its way to the NEC. We trust it will shortly be followed by several others.

UKIP's corruption is now everywhere known!

posted by Martin |3:44 PM