This has to be an inside job!

Aug 18 2006 By Jon Griffin

APPLICANTS for a finance job with Birmingham City Council were invited to apply to an ex-council official currently in jail awaiting sentence for a £1 million fraud.

An advert for a £17,985 payments officer placed in the official council publication Forward invited jobseekers to contact John Kaduwanema on a work number.

But Kaduwanema, a former finance manager for social care and health finance at the council, is in custody.

He pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to syphoning off more than £1 million of public money and will be sentenced next month.

An inquiry has been launched into how the advert for the post, based at Louisa Ryland House in Birmingham city centre, came to include Kaduwanema's name.

A Birmingham City Council spokeswoman said: "This advert should have been stopped when the issues about Mr Kaduwanema came to light.

"Due to an unexplained error, the advert subsequently appeared. We are looking at the processes to ensure there is no repetition in the future."

But leading Labour Coun John Cotton, shadow cabinet member for housing, said: "Heads should roll over this. It seems that there has been a complete breakdown in how things should be run.

"This makes the council a complete laughing stock. I find it astounding that this could have slipped through the net."

Kaduwanema, a Ugandan national, is in custody after admitting ten charges of dishonestly obtaining money by transfers from the council between May 2005 and February 2006.

The defendant, 27, from Stag Drive, Huntington, Cannock, has also asked for a further 14 offences to be taken into consideration.

The case originally came to light when Barclays Bank contacted the city council and raised questions about a transaction of council cash.

The local authority ordered an investigation of finances in the social services department.

The inquiry revealed that money was missing and officers contacted West Midlands Police.

Kaduwanema was subsequently charged with ten offences.

The council has since lodged an application under the Proceeds of Crime Act to obtain several properties and cars believed to be owned by Kaduwanema.

When the Birmingham Mail rang the telephone number quoted in the Forward advert, a council employee said: "Mr Kaduwanema does not work here any more. Can anybody else help?"