Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Behind-scenes drama of the timesheets
Bosses at the Canterbury City Council-run Marlowe Theatre are in a bit of a lather at the moment after it emerged they had been spraying about accusations of fraud against their employees. The council’s allegation is weak, to say the least. It is essentially that one night in May up to 16 employees collectively took leave of their senses and risked losing their jobs by committing a seriously petty fraud by falsifying their timesheets. It is clear that most – if not all – will be exonerated. The council, however, is playing a blatant game of double standards. On the one hand, it has a “whistle-blowing” policy so that employees feel secure in reporting suspicious or even illegal activities. This is fair enough if leads to the rooting out of malfeasance. When it comes to itself, however, the council changes track. It suddenly rejects the concept of whistle-blowing, stating that employees must not go public with their concerns and that their over-riding duty is to protect the reputation of the local authority no matter what it gets up to. All that has happened here is that employees unhappy at effectively being found guilty of a fraud they assert they did not commit have chosen in the spirit of openness to voice their worries.
The council’s press guru Rob Davies insists there’s no witchhunt taking place to discover how the Marlowe fraud probe became public. That is hard to believe. I’ve been around this game a long time and I know that in such situations, the instant reaction is two-pronged: A search for the source and damage limitation. The council hasn’t as yet undertaken any public damage limitation, simply reciting the line that the investigation is ongoing. But it is evident that if the Marlowe Theatre’s reputation has been damaged by the reality of this investigation, then the only organisation guilty of damaging its reputation is the Marlowe Theatre itself.
Quote of the week comes from the American social philosopher Eric Hoffer and his 1951 examination of political movements, The True Believer: “The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion. He is an atheist with devoutness and unction. According to Renan, ‘The day after that on which the world should no longer believe in God, atheists would be the wretchedest of all men’.”