AN INQUIRY has been launched after The Star discovered Burngreave New Deal for Communities hired the services of two men found guilty of gross misconduct while running a similar regeneration agency in London.
Just over a year after being sacked from his job as deputy chief executive of South Kilburn New Deal for Communities, Bill Husband was installed as interim deputy chief executive at BNDfC on a six-month contract.
And Jack Davies, who resigned as chief executive of SKNDfC, in the London borough of Brent, now runs a company called JMJ Group, based in East Yorkshire, which offers motivational training.
Among the clients listed on his website are publicly-funded BNDfC and spin-off project Burngreave Opportunities.
Davies and Husband's misconduct at South Kilburn involved living rent-free in a maisonette given to SKNDfC by Brent Council to use as offices.
Both men were subsequently criticised by Brent Council following an investigation, completed last September while Husband was working at BNDfC.
It concluded the pair were responsible for "clear failures" and "major weaknesses in the governance arrangements" at SKNDfC.
Sheffield Council Liberal Democrat leader Coun Paul Scriven has demanded an independent investigation into how both men were given work by BNDfC - which has received £55 million of Government funding over 10 years.
He has also called for the suspension of the agency's chief executive John Clark, while the inquiry is carried out.
An internal investigation is being carried out by BNDfC's new deputy chief executive Ann Allen, who was appointed after Husband left the agency when his contract finished in December, and the organisation has stopped using JMJ Group's services until the inquiry is complete.
Coun Scriven said the revelations "point to worrying and fundamental weaknesses in the governance arrangements at Burngreave New Deal for Communities".
"It's for that reason I am now asking the council's audit team for a full investigation into how somebody who had been sacked could become deputy chief executive," he said.
Sheffield Council Chief Executive Sir Bob Kerslake said: "Our officers have been in contact with Burngreave New Deal regarding this matter and we know the recently appointed deputy chief executive Ann Allen is investigating the situation.
"It is clear Mr Husband's appointment was made in good faith and there is no suggestion of impropriety or mismanagement during the period in which he worked for BNDfC.
"As an arms length organisation, it is for Burngreave New Deal to decide whether it is appropriate to suspend the chief executive in the light of the information they have available to them."
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